Last season Northfield converted on power plays 8.6 percent of the time and coming into this season head coach Brent Bielenberg wanted to see a higher percentage of success on the power play.

The Raiders got a chance to work on their power play Tuesday against eighth-ranked Mound-Westonka at the Northfield Ice Arena in the season opener but to no avail in a 4-0 loss to the White Hawks.

Mound-Westonka had eight penalties in the game, which gave Northfield ample opportunities on the power play. The Raiders even had two brief 5-on-3 power plays but came up empty handed against White Hawks sophomore goalie Emma Polusny.

“She’s a top five goalie in the state,” Bielenberg said of Polusny. “She’s already probably getting looks D-I. That type of a goalie she makes it look easy. She was putting away the rebounds. That might be the best goalie we see all season.”

Despite the lack of success on the power play Northfield cycled the puck around well and generated some scoring chances but Polusny didn’t give up many big rebounds for the Raiders.

“I thought the girls were moving, I thought they were improvising,” Bielenberg said. “We’re just a couple bounces away from seeing some things. I was pleased with our power play.”

Northfield outshot Mound-Westonka 27-19 for the game but a trio of turnovers in the Raiders’ own zone allowed the White Hawks to capitalize.

Mound-Westonka sophomore Ellie Burris scored twice and sophomore Liz Schepers had a pair of goals as well. Burris put the White Hawks up 1-0 8 minutes, 21 seconds into the game with a shot from the slot that found the upper corner of the net after Northfield turned the puck over deep in its own zone.

Schepers scored her first goal of the game at 14:48 of the first period after she found herself all alone in front of the Raiders goal to make it 2-0.

Schepers added her second goal of the game at 15:11 of the second period with a shot from the left circle after she collected a loose puck in the Northfield zone after a turnover to make it 3-0.

“The first three goals we lost track of people in front of the net and they were putting it away upstairs,” Bielenberg said. “We kind of shored that up by making sure our weakside wing was coming in the high slot to help that out. It’s a good team. When you make an error they capitalize on it.”

Burris notched her second goal of the game at 14:09 of the third period on a rebound that she put in from a sharp angle to make it 4-0.

“I thought we controlled play a lot of the time and they cashed in when they could,” Bielenberg said. “I was proud of our kids too.”

The Raiders killed off a five-minute major penalty early in the second period after a check from behind penalty and had a chance to get back in the game later with a 5-on-3 power play for 23 seconds and a full two-minute power play beginning at 12:39 in the period.

Northfield will face Winona Thursday in Winona.