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TIGERS VALIANT  IN 5-3 LOSS TO TOP-RATED BLAKE

By Jim Hoey, 01/16/19, 8:45PM CST

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TIGERS VALIANT  IN 5-3 LOSS TO TOP-RATED BLAKE

The youthful Farmington Tiger girls’ hockey team gave top-ranked Blake all they could handle Tuesday night at the Blake Arena, succumbing 5-3 to the Bears. FHS trailed 4-3 late in the game before senior forward Izzy Daniel scored an empty-netter with 50 seconds remaining to complete her hat trick.  Blake outshot the visitors 33-23 but the Tigers had a 21-20 shot advantage in the final two periods.  Tiger netminder Ryleigh Furlong, who has started all 18 games for her team, had 28 saves while counterpart Ava Christie totaled 20.

Head coach Jon Holmes stated, “Blake is big and strong and they are not only much older by grade but they have a lot of experience.  Also, with Maddie Wellington making her return from the U-18 National team playing in Japan, we really held our own and played a very solid last-half of the game.  Having a chance to tie at the end was fun.”

Farmington is in the midst of its finest play of the season, winning six of its previous seven games before facing the top-ranked team in AA on its home ice.  Blake, meanwhile, improved to 17-2 on the season.  In its previous game, the Bears had their 15-game winning streak snapped by 10th-ranked Hill-Murray (5-4 loss in overtime).  Their only other loss was to second-ranked Edina (4-3) in mid-November.  FHS falls to 10-7-1 overall.

Blake, averaging over five goals a game, dominated the Tigers in the initial period and outshot them 13-2.  However, the only goal Furlong allowed was a goal by Daniel at 10:38 with Lily Delianedis assisting.  Tiger head coach Jon Holmes remarked, “We played the first few minutes strong, then settled into coasting and puck-watching the remainder of the period.  Admittedly, they are great puckhandlers, so I am sure the astonishment factor was pretty high.”

Both teams scored twice in the middle stanza and Blake took a 3-2 lead after two periods.  Madison Tix gave the hosts a 2-0 at 4:31 with Grace Johnson and Audrey Wethington assisting.  Sophomore defender Jayden Seifert scored her first goal of the season to cut the lead to 2-1 at 6:39, however, with Brenna Fuhrman and Samantha Moehle on the helpers.  At 13:30, senior defender Cassie Knutson knotted the score as sophomore forward Carly Lancaster added her 14th assist of the year.  But Daniel, headed to Cornell, put the Bears back in front at 15:04 with Adelaide Burton and Bailey Abraham assisting.

Holmes stated, “With 11 minutes left in the second, I called timeout because we were getting outshot 20-2 at that juncture and just not looking like ourselves on any front.  The point was to relish the moment and just focus on mastering the mundane items of the game.  The final period and a half was a totally different story.”

In an evenly-contested final period, Blake jumped ahead 4-2 at 5:22 when Madeline Wethington beat Furlong and the Bears held that two-goal lead for nearly 10 minutes.  With Blake committing their sixth penalty of the game, FHS made it 4-3 on the power-play when senior forward Bailey Kelley scored her second goal of the season in just her seventh game on a rebound from Enright's shot off the post with Knutson assisting as well.  But Daniel ended the Tigers’ hopes with her empty-netter and 20th of the year.

“We started to get our share of the play and the team was able to see how high our ceiling can be,” said Holmes.  “Our goal all year is to get an inch better every practice and game.  We certainly did that against Blake and hopefully we can pick up where we left off in our next two conference games.”

FHS next faces the Rosemount Irish (6-11 overall, 3-9 conference) at the Rosemount Ice Arena on Thursday, Jan. 17 at 8 p.m.  Another road test follows on Saturday, Jan. 19 at Apple Valley (7-9-2 overall, 3-7-2 conference) at 6 p.m. at the Apple Valley Ice Arena.  Farmington stands third in the South Suburban (7-4-1) behind league-leading Eagan (12-0) and second-place Lakeville North (8-4).

 

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