Winning Streak Ends

by Pat Rupp

Farmington’s impressive seven-game winning streak came to a screeching halt last weekend as the Tigers lost back-to-back games Friday and Saturday.

Friday night at Schmitz-Maki Arena the Tigers spotted fifth-rated Blake a 4-0 lead before coming back to make it respectable in a 4-2 final.

Fewer than eight hours later in Shakopee the locals dropped a 4-1 decision to the Sabers and fell a game behind league leading Apple Valley in the chase for South Suburban Conference honors.

“The back-to-back games were not actually an issue,” Farmington coach Jon Holmes said.  “We didn’t lack for energy.”

The problem Friday night against Blake was a horrific start. The Bears scored three times in the first 7:33 to make it look easy.

“I had to call a timeout after their third goal and after that we settled in,” Holmes said. We outscored them 2-1 over the final two-and-a half periods but the deficit was just too big to overcome. Blake came ready to play and we needed a seven-minute warm-up.”

The Bears netted the only goal of period two before the home team rallied for a pair of scores in the final frame.

Izzy Zwart (from Sam Moehle) scored the first Farmington goal with Brenna Fuhrman notching the second unassisted.

Blake won the shots on goal battle by a 25-22 margin.

“We were not able to cash in on a few power play opportunities which was unfortunate,” Holmes said. “In fact we gave up a shorthanded goal and a four-on-four goal which is not like us at all…The message over the final two periods was to win the final periods which we did.”

While Holmes was positive about his team’s resurgence against Blake, he struggled to find bright spots in Saturday afternoon’s conference loss to Shakopee.

“The game was very disappointing,” he said. “We had a very solid first 10 minutes and then we just completely fell off our bus. We struggled to get it together and got on a bad train of penalties and unfortunate calls that we just were not able to overcome…The loss was definitely mental and not physical.”

Claire Enright got the Tigers off on the right foot with a shorthanded score midway through the opening period. That lead stood through the first break but the wheels started to come off in the second stanza.

Paige McNeill scored twice in the second to give the Sabers the lead and then added two more in the third for a four-goal night.

The teams combined for 59 shots and the Tigers had 29 of them but as has happened in most of their losses, they could not covert the opportunities into goals.

The road doesn’t get any easier this week as Farmington, 11-7 overall and 8-4 in the conference, hosts Eastview (13-4-2; 6-4-2) Tuesday night at Schmitz-Maki. Saturday the Tigers are back at home for a conference game against Prior Lake.