Tigers Rally Past Raiders in Round Two

by Pat Rupp

Farmington (8-5) remained unbeaten in the 2019 Louis Schmitz Holiday Classic with a 4-2 comeback win over former Missota Conference rival Northfield Friday night at Schmitz-Maki Arena.

The second round victory mirrored many of the Tiger games during this up-and-down season. The winners completely dominated possession of the puck and finished with a huge shots on goal advantage (38-11) yet couldn’t take advantage by finishing off their scoring chances.

 “We couldn’t find the net and we let in a couple of ill timed goals to keep it interesting,” Farmington coach Jon Holmes said. “Their goalie did play exceptionally well though as we hit her with a good number of quality shots. We just weren’t in the exact positions for rebounds.”

Each team got on the scoreboard once in the opening period. Liv Helleson (from Sam Moehle) continued to thrive on the power play, netting her sixth goal of the season to open the scoring. Northfield answered four minutes later to even things heading into the second period.

The Raiders struck again a minute into the second to pull ahead but the Tigers came back with two scores of their own to take the lead for good. Moehle (from Makenna Kadrlik) and Sadie Long (from Carly Lancaster) did the honors. Farmington outshot Northfield by a one-sided 17-5 in the second.

The Tigers held a 10-2 shots advantage in the final period with Long (from Izzy Zwart and Claire Enright) adding an exclamation point to her team’s fourth straight win with an empty-net goal in the game’s closing seconds. Long’s goal was her third of the tournament.

“Sadie is really a gritty player,” Holmes said. “She gets into corners and finds ways to get shooting chances. 

“With Grace Auge who also goes hard to corners and Carly Lancaster who is a top notch playmaker, that line has been playing very well as of late. Carly creates a lot of opportunities; Sadie’s first goal came off of a rebound from her breakaway.”

Farmington squares off against another old Missota Conference foe in New Prague in Saturday’s tournament finale. A win would give the Tigers a perfect 3-0 record in the eight-team field but not necessarily mean a championship.

“The tie-breaker is goals allowed and both Lakeville North and Eastview are pretty stingy in what they have allowed thus far,” Holmes said. “Time will tell.”