Tied for Second

by Pat Rupp

Farmington’s overall season mark of 5-5 doesn’t raise many eyebrows, but the Tigers continue to rank among the upper tier of teams in the South Suburban Conference standings.

Coach Jon Holmes’ squad pulled into a second place tie in the league with an 8-5 goalfest win over Rosemount Tuesday night at Schmitz-Maki Arena. Farmington sits at 5-3 in conference games and is tied for the second slot with Shakopee (4-2-2) with 10 points.

“It’s hard to believe that with the start we have had that we are in a tie for second place in the conference,” Holmes said. “This goes to show how tough the SSC is.”

Farmington’s fifth win in its last seven outings came on the back of a huge offensive performance against the Irish.

The locals erupted for four scores in the opening period to forge a three-goal lead. Sam Moehle, who would assist on three later goals, got the ball rolling with a score at 2:57 and Carly Lancaster (from Claire Enright and Sadie Long) made it 2-0 less than three minutes later.

Later in the first, Enright celebrated her return from a hip injury with a pair of goals, one unassisted and the other on the power play from Moehle and Kiersten Wood.

“Just having her in a sweater gives the team a different vibe,” Holmes said. “She is a an extremely effervescent player and tonight she stepped in to play defense in Brenna Fuhrman’s absence.”

Rosemount converted two of its six shots on goal in the second to pull within 4-3 but Liv Helleson’s goal at the 12:53 mark restored the lead to two scores to set up a fast and furious final frame.

Rosemount immediately cut its deficit to a goal at 5-4 before Tiger senior Izzy Zwart took over the game with a hat trick, two coming on the power play and one on an empty-netter to close out the scoring. Moehle (2), Helleson and Jayden Seifert assisted on Zwart’s scoring spree.

“Izzy has been playing extremely well as of late,” Holmes said. “She has really taken on the role of being an on- ice leader and rolled with it.  She has always been a fast and very solid defensive forward but this year she has been able to get herself into the scoring areas and become a threat offensively as well.”

Holmes said his team really needed the offensive coming out party and also offered that the defense will have its hands full until Fuhrman returns from playing for Team USA in an international tournament.

“With Brenna gone there is definitely a different dynamic for the defense,” he said. “We know we have to fill a pretty big void and we need to do it by committee…Jayden Seifert has been playing extremely well all season on the blue line and last night she stepped up another notch to really take the lead from a defensive standpoint.”

The Tigers have one more game on the docket before Christmas, a Saturday home matchup with SSC rival Shakopee.

“It’s a pretty big one for us as it wraps up our first trip through the conference schedule,” Holmes said. “A win could put us in sole possession of second making the jump to the second time around where we want to improve our standing.”

Face-off for the conference showdown is scheduled for 3:00 at Schmitz-Maki.