Tigers survive penalties in 5-2 win at Prior Lake

by Pat Rupp

Despite incurring 22 minutes of penalty time and playing the last 1:30 of regulation facing a 6-on-3 disadvantage, the Tigers downed Prior Lake 5-2 in a South Suburban Conference game played Saturday evening at Dakotah Arena.

Farmington, playing its fourth game in five days, broke a 2-2 tie after two periods with three unanswered goals in the frenetic final 17 minutes to get back to the .500 mark at 7-7-1 for the season. Coach Jon Holmes’ young squad is 4-5-1 in South Suburban play.

The winners held 1-0 and 2-1 leads in the first and second periods on goals by Kenzie Hauswirth (from Taylor Anderson) and Ellie Moser (from Maddie Oines) but each time the Lakers answered with a tying score.

“Discombobulated.” Holmes said “That’s the best word to describe this game…We spent the better part of the second period shorthanded but killed extremely well. 

“We gave up an abundance of opportunities but they were unable to capitalize and (Emily) Auge made some big saves as well.  Fortunately, we were still in a position to win the game going into the third period.”

Farmington picked up 16 minutes of penalties in the second period..

The Tigers picked up three more minor penalties over the final period and were outshot 13-6 but still managed to outscore the Lakers 3-0 on goals from Morgan Medved (from Marissa Agerter and Hauswirth), Agerter (from Medved) and Moser (unassisted).

“We talked about putting the past in the past and going out to win a 17-minute game,” Holmes said of his team’s third period rally. “Our motto was to ‘out hustle our brains’. 

“We were slow and sluggish for the first two periods and we just needed to focus on winning races to the puck.  We got back on top pretty quick and then did a nice job of keeping them outside our house.”

Prior Lake outshot its guests by a resounding 29-14 count due mostly to the visitors’ unending trips to the penalty box.

Auge turned in another solid performance in the Tiger nets, finishing with 27 saves.

“The positive here is that we did what we had to do to get the win,” Holmes said. “We certainly want more from ourselves, however, and we want the reputation that we will hold our team values in check every night.”

Tuesday the Tigers return to conference play with a home encounter with South Suburban rival Eastivew. The two teams played to a 4-4 overtime tie when they met earlier in the season in Apple Valley.