(photo by Jim Lindquist)
Holy Angels has won every Missota Conference boys hockey championship since most local puck followers can remember so it was no big shock the Stars beat the Tigers 8-2 Tuesday night, Jan. 4, at Richfield Arena.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was that the teams left the ice after the first period in a scoreless tie.
"We gave them a run for a bit," Tiger coach Keith Revels said. "They outshot us (18-8), but we did a nice job of keeping them on the perimeter and we had some nice looks of our own."
Revels said that the wheels started to come off in the second period when a couple of key mistakes and two untimely penalties led to five Holy Angels goals.
"They seemed to convert every time they had an opportunity," he said.
The Stars tacked on three more scores in the final period as they won their fourth game in a row and upped their conference record to a perfect 2-0.
Tyler Grubb netted his 15th goal of the season for the Tigers in the second period and Dan Handberg added a score in the final frame. Andrew Peterson had a pair of assists for the visitors.
Goalie Victor Simones must have felt like a duck in a shooting gallery as Holy Angels outshot their guests by a dominating 59-21.
"Victor was on his game," Revels said. "He saw a lot of shots and did a nice job squaring to the puck and controlling rebounds."
The Tigers who have now lost three in a row will try to get back on the winning track, Friday, Jan. 7, when they face off against Northfield in a Missota Conference contest at Schmitz-Maki Arena.
