Cougars Spoil Tiger Opener

By Pat Rupp

Farmington coach Jon Holmes warned his team that it would have a target on its back this season and it didn’t take long to prove he was right as the Tigers dropped a 5-3 decision to Lakeville South in their season opener Saturday at Hasse Arena.

The loss was especially hard to take as it came at the hands of both a South Suburban Conference and Section 1AA opponent.

“We had a rough week off the ice as a team and it was apparent on Thursday and Friday during practices that we might not have our regular team ready to go for Saturday,” Holmes said. “We just never found a rhythm.”

Things started well enough for the visitors as goals by Sam Moehle (from Liv Helleson and Carly Lancaster) and Claire Enright in the game’s first 9:31 gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead.

The lead stayed there until the final 1:47 of the period when the Cougars’ Iona Welsch netted a pair of goals to tie the count at the first intermission.

Lancaster (from Izzy Zwart and Bailey Zimmer) put her team back in front early in the second frame but South responded in kind to make it 3-3 with a period to play.

Even though Farmington outshot 11-5 in the third, the period belonged to the Cougars who cashed in two of the five scoring opportunities.

“Even when we got up early we still were not winning the battles on the ice,” Holmes said. “We lost races to the puck. We went through the motions and overall, we just had a really off day. 

“Credit South as they played well. I watched them play Shakopee earlier in the week and they played much better against us and that will happen all year. We are going to get everyone’s best game.”

Farmington ended with a 25-24 edge in shots on goal but that wasn’t nearly enough to take the sting out of the season opening defeat.

Tiger goaltender Ryleigh Furlong and the veteran blue line corps that held the opposition to 2.21 goals a game last winter surrendered five scores to their neighbors to the west.

“It was very, very uncharacteristic for us to play like that,” Holmes concluded, “but not completely unexpected after the week we had.”

The Tigers will try to mend the errors of their ways Tuesday night when they travel to Apple Valley for a South Suburban Conference date with the Eagles.