BURNSVILLE SNAPS TIGER WIN STREAK

by Pat Rupp

Farmington’s four-game winning streak came to an abrupt halt Saturday evening in a 3-0 South Suburban Conference loss to Burnsville at the Burnsville Ice Center.

With the victory, the Blaze (10-2-1) maintained their narrow lead over Lakeville South (9-2-1) in the race for the South Suburban Conference championship. The Tigers fell back to the .500 mark at 6-6-1, good enough for fifth place in the league rankings.

“We didn’t show up the way we needed to for the first two periods,” Farmington coach Jon Holmes said. “I told the girls after the game if we played the first two periods like we played the third we could have locked the game up early.

“But give Burnsville credit. They go at it hard. They compete for pucks and play through the whistle. That’s what got us into trouble the first two periods.”

The Blaze got on the scoreboard first when Emily Howard found the net on the power play at 2:18 of the first period. The penalty was one of three called on the visitors in the opening frame.

“They (Burnsville) only had two penalties the whole game and they were offset by ones called on us,” Holmes said. “We had minimal time playing with an advantage. It doesn’t help things when your lack of positioning or hustle leads to goals that shouldn’t happen.”

Kylie Glassen put the Blaze up by two with a second period score and Madisyn Krumholz added a third period goal to close out the scoring.

Despite the loss, Holmes was encouraged by his team’s play over the final period.

“The scorekeeper had us outshot by a 2-1 margin in the third period,” he said, “but I think he put the numbers in the wrong column. We came back to control the play in the period.”

Holmes said the focus for the remaining five games in the regular season and beyond into the section playoffs will be to learn and improve.

“The Burnsville game should serve as a good lesson for us,” he said. “We took one on the chin, but we can’t be satisfied with one or two good periods. We have to be on our game every night.

“We need to jump back on the win train and start building momentum for the post-season. You don’t like to lose any game, but even with Saturday’s loss, I still like this team. We’re right there.”

The Tigers try to re-board the victory train Thursday night when they entertain Rosemount (7-3-0) at Schmitz-Maki Arena. Farmington blanked the Irish 3-0 when the teams faced off earlier in the season in Rosemount.