9th goal of the season beats Chaska
(photo by Jim Lindquist)
Dan Handberg's goal (from Quinn Malcolm) 67 seconds into overtime gave the Tigers a 5-4 Missota Conference win over Chaska Tuesday night, Feb. 8, at Schmitz-Maki Arena.
The contest was almost an exact replica of last Thursday's 5-4 overtime loss at Northfield which saw the Raiders tie the game in the final seconds of regulation...only this time Farmington found the net first in the extra session.
Zak Payne scored the Tigers' first two goals, one in the first and one in the second period to give his team a one-goal lead with 17 minutes to play.
The Hawks tallied two scores early in the final period to gain a 3-2 advantage before goals by Andrew Peterson and Trevor Hockert gave the lead back to the home team with six minutes to play in regulation.
The one-goal edge held until the final four seconds of regulation when after pulling its goalie the Storm got the puck by Tiger goalie Victor Simones to force overtime.
"We played well through two periods," Tiger coach Keith Revels said. "We failed on four breakaways and hit pipes or shot the puck right into the goalie. We should have put them away in the first two periods."
As for the second straight game-tying goal in the final seconds, Revels said it shouldn't have happened.
"We wanted a soft forecheck and to pin the puck in the corner and back check with the purpose of taking away odd rushes," he said. "We did neither."
Handberg ended the suspense early with his ninth goal of the season on the first Farmington shot of overtime.
Grant Hauswirth picked up three assists for the winners and Payne added an assist to his two goals for a three-point night.
Simones finished with 20 saves in running his season record to eight wins and seven losses.
The victory upped Farmingon's season record to 10-12. The Tigers are 4-7 in conference play and rank fifth in the league standings, one game behind fourth place Chanhassen.
The Tigers return to action Thursday night with a conference road game at New Prague.
