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Furlong makes a Blocker Save after a deflection

ZEROING IN

By Pat Rupp, 02/18/21, 9:00AM CST

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ZEROING IN

By Pat Rupp

What do you do when the offense is struggling and goals are hard to come by? According to Farmington coach Jon Holmes, the answer is to close thing down on the defensive end of the rink. After all, you can’t lose when the other team doesn’t score.

That strategy worked to perfection over the past week at the Tigers recorded back-to-back South Suburban Conference shutouts of league-leading Eastview and Prior Lake.

Farmington (4-5-1) edged the league-leading Lightning 1-0 last Friday night at Schmitz-Maki Arena and then made it two whitewashes in a row with a 3-0 home blanking of Prior Lake.

The feisty Tiger defense and senior goaltender Ryleigh Furlong have now combined to hold the opposition scoreless over the last seven periods of action.

“We have hammered the defensive zone the past couple of weeks in practice and will continue to do so as we try to make some big gains the second time through the conference schedule,” Holmes said.

Farmington 1 Eastview 0

The final game of the first round of South Suburban play looked a lot like the first eight league games of the season. The Tigers dominated play, outshooting their guests by a lopsided 36-22 for the night, yet needed a third period score to produce the only goal of the contest.

Leading scorer Sadie Long provided the game-winner a minute into the final period on assists from Sam Moehle and Carly Lancaster. The score was Long’s 11th of the season.

“We had loads of chances offensively but just couldn’t connect,” Holmes said. “But we bought into the idea that until the shots start to fall, we had to use our play at the defensive end as our savior.

“Ryleigh (Furlong) played great and our forwards were much more involved in keeping the play outside and not allowing second chances.”

 

Farmington 3 Prior Lake 0

The Tuesday win over Prior Lake was especially sweet as the Lakers had shutout the Tigers by an identical score when the teams squared off at Dakotah! Arena in the season opener last month.

“We knew they had an outstanding goalie (Alex Pellicci), so we would have to keep up our strong defensive play,” Holmes said. “It was good payback because when they beat us the first time, I think we had a rough time recovering for a while.”

The Tigers had a goal waived off when the net came unmoored early in the opening period but Long (from Liv Helleson and Brenna Fuhrman) broke the scoring ice with a power play goal later in the period. Farmington outshot Prior Lake 15-3 over the first 17 minutes.

The play evened out in the second period before third period goals by Kenna Kadrlik (from Abby Gehrke) and Moehle (from Long and Jayden Seifert) officially put the win in the Farmington column. Moehle’s goal came on the power play, the team’s second of the night.

Farmington won the shots-on-goal battle by a decisive 36-19.

“We stuck to our process and finally got a couple in the net,” Holmes said. “It was another solid night for Ryleigh who did a good job of controlling rebounds.”

The Tigers will be looking to extend their modest two-game winning streak Friday when they make the short trip to Ames arena in Lakeville to take on conference rival North (3-6-1). Farmington breezed by the Panthers 9-3 in their first meeting of the season.

 

 

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