Tigers Wrap Up Winning Regular Season

by Pat Rupp

Farmington closed the books on its 2016-17 regular season with a 4-3 South Suburban Conference win over Burnsville on Tuesday and a 4-2 defeat at the hands of No. 5-rated Eden Prairie on Thursday.

The final two games of the campaign, both road contests, left the Tigers with a final mark of 13-11-1, including an 8-9 showing in the South Suburban Conference, as they prepare for the Section 1AA post-season tournament.

The Tigers finished 3-1 over their final four games and after the competitive loss to Eden Prairie, coach Jon Holmes was optimistic about his chances in the playoffs.

“I thought we proved to ourselves two big things in this game,” he said. “First of all, we are able to compete and even beat just about any team. Secondly, we are able to roll with adversities that are out of our control and still keep our focus and stay in the game.”

The high-flying Eagles scored the first three goals of the night and led 3-0 midway through the second period before Bailey Kelley’s short-handed goal got the Tigers on the board.

Emily Rubins (from Carly Lancaster and Marissa Agerter) made it a one-goal game later in the period.

The Eagles tacked on the final goal of the night 53 seconds later before the two teams skated through a scoreless third period.

“We played two very solid periods,” Holmes said. “Despite giving up four goals we did a nice job of keeping them outside and not allowing many prime opportunities. 

“The goals they had last night were absolute snipes. The shots hit pockets about the size of a puck and if players are able to do that, they deserve to score.”

Abby Bollig had a busy night in goal for Farmington, finishing with 26 saves. Eden Prairie won the shots on goal battle by a count of 30-15.

“We somehow didn’t get one power play,” Holmes said, “but we didn’t get out of our mindset and we continued to play tough and solid hockey for the entire game.”

Farmington 4 Burnsville 3

In Tuesday night’s victory at Burnsville it was the Tigers who led the entire game. The winners went up 2-1 after the first frame on scores from Lancaster (from Rubins and Agerter) and Kelley (from Jayden Seifert).

Agerter’s second period goal on assists from Rubins and Megan Bernu gave the visitors a 3-1 edge heading to the final break. Jenna Gerold (from Kelley and Bernu) added the final Farmington score before the Blaze added two late goals to make things interesting.

“In the third period we were put on the penalty kill quite a bit and found ourselves caught in a game of chase,” Holmes said, “so we yielded a couple of sloppy goals, something we definitely need to stay disciplined enough to avoid in the playoffs. 

“But overall we played a solid game. We had a number of prime chances to score including several breakaways that we just didn’t capitalize on. But in the end we still found the net four times.

Emily Auge patrolled the nets in the conference finale and finished with 19 saves in picking up her fourth win of her abbreviated season.

“This team came into the season knowing they had scoring on their side,” Holmes said  “When the scoring didn’t come to fruition we buckled up and focused on our D-zone to ensure we stayed in games and we did that amazingly well. 

“As the scoring started to come slowly we still kept the D-zone as our focus and I am very happy with where we are as a team heading into playoffs.”

The Tigers will most likely open Section 1AA play next Wednesday with a home game against Rochester Mayo.