Home Sweet Home at Last

By Pat Rupp

Schmitz-Maki Arena didn’t feel much like home for the Tigers early in the season as they went 0-3-1 in their first four starts on familiar ice.

But after Thursday night’s 6-0 whitewash of South Suburban Conference cellar-dweller Prior Lake, the locals have now won five straight at home.

“With having a ton of turnover from last year, I think we just had to find our identity as a team,” Tiger coach Jon Holmes said. “There were a lot of expectations and large shadows from years past that the team was certainly trying to honor and live up to. 

“As it is with most college teams, the rookies and young players really find their sense of place and become veterans in their own minds by this time of year.”

Three young Tigers played big roles in the win over the Lakers. Freshman Samantha Moehle scored a hat trick, all three goals coming on special team situations. Classmate Claire Enright added two goals and two assists and sophomore goalie Ryleigh Furlong recorded her second shutout of the year with a 16-save effort.

“Sam Moehle has been outstanding,” Holmes said. “She is very aggressive and extremely willing and eager to learn.  She also is able to watch, listen, and apply not only what the coaches are advocating, but also what the other players around her are doing well. 

“Playing with Claire has been huge for Sam. They really work well together and being able to work with forwards like them for the next four years is certainly invigorating from the coaching perspective.”

Farmington (9-6-1) scored two goals in each period in the win over Prior Lake. Moehle tallied one shorthanded and one on the power play in the opening frame. Enright and Moehle each netted one in the second and Enright and Kelsie Vincent closed out the scoring in the third period.

Jayden Seifert contributed a pair of assists to the Farmington cause and Brenna Fuhrman and Carly Lancaster has one apiece.

As for the net work of Furlong, Holmes said it was another step forward for the first-year varsity performer.

“She played very solid again,” he said. “In games where it looks lopsided on paper the players in front often find themselves taking breaks…Ryleigh kept the game in our hands by making some very nice saves early to keep the ship right.”

The win gives the Tigers a 6-4-1 mark in South Suburban Conference play and sets up an important stretch of league games that could well decide who finishes second in the final 10-team league standings. Shakopee, Burnsville, Lakeville North and Farmington are within one-half game of each other going into this weekend’s play.

“We are super congested in that pack right now,” Holmes said. “Obviously, we would like to finish as high up as we can after a slower start. It would be a nice moral boost to climb up the ladder as we look ahead to the sections.”

The Tigers travel to Burnsville Saturday for a matinee game with the Blaze. Next week they hit the road again to take on the number 1 rated team in the state in Blake on Tuesday and then Rosemount on Thursday.