04 January 2014

Boys Hockey: My Stars! Tigers beat HA again

Justin Novak 2 goals, 2 assists (photo by Jim Lindquist)
Last February Farmington went into the Richfield Arena and beat Holy Angels in overtime for their first win against the Stars since, well, forever.

Thursday night they returned to the same rink and made it two in a row with a hard-fought 6-4 Missota Conference victory.

"We're not running on all cylinders yet, but we came out with a big conference win just the same," coach Keith Revels said. "We answered each of their comeback attempts with a goal of our own to push lead when we had to. That's something that has given us trouble in past."

Early on it looked like the visitors would cruise to their ninth win of the season. Devin Bernu (from Tyler Jette and Justin Novak) scored the only goal of the opening period and then John Siebenaler (from Novak and Erik Holmstrom) and Grady Hauswirth (from Tanner Grubb and Jack Erickson) opened the lead to 3-0 in the second.

Each of Farmington's first three scores came on the power play.

"Both sides took too many penalties," Revels said. "We got caught up in some unnecessary battles of words.We need to stay out of that nonsense as it becomes a distraction to the task at hand."

The Stars countered with a pair of scores in the closing minutes of the second period to make it a one-goal game headed to the final break.

Erik Holmstrom 3 assists (photo by Jim Lindquist)
Novak found the net 39 seconds into the final period and three minutes later Erickson scored on assists from Holmstrom and Grubb to restore the three-goal edge.

The Stars rallied, however, with two goals in an 83-second span midway through the third to make things interesting.

Novak's  second score of the night finally sealed the deal with four minutes to play in regulation.

Gage Overby returned to the Farmington nets after a two-game absence and picked up the win with a 30-save performance. The Tigers outshot the Stars 38-34.

Novak finished with two goals and a pair of assists for a four-point night. Holmstrom assisted on three of the Tiger goals. Erickson (goal, assists) and Grubb (2 assists) also had multiple point games.

Farmington (9-3-1) will take its five-game unbeaten streak to Schmitz-Maki Arena Tuesday night when it hosts Northfield in a Missota Conference game.