1st career goal
Farmington spotted host Shakopee three first period goals and could never come all the way back in a 4-2 Missota Conference loss Thursday night at Shakopee Arena.
"We really came out flat in the first period," coach Jon Holmes said. "We just were not ready to push ourselves out of a comfort zone to match their two all stars.
"After a somewhat embarrassing first period in regards to how we approached our own power play and getting scored on twice while they were shorthanded, we really turned it around in the second and third periods. We out scored them and I would say out hustled them."
The Sabers netted their first goal 5:30 after the opening face-off and then burned the Tigers with two short-handed scores in a 57-second span late in the period.
Haleigh Zwart put the visitors on the board early in the second stanza with a short-handed goal of her own but the Sabers responded in kind with 11 seconds to go in the period to make it a three-goal game heading into the final 17 minutes.
Grace Vincent provided the only scoring of the final period with her first career goal. Breanna Raske recorded her first career point with an assist.
Senior goaltender Jessica Erchul had another busy night in the nets for the Tigers with 38 saves. Shakopee outshot Farmington 42-23 in the contest.
The loss dropped the Tigers season record to 8-14 overall and 4-6 in conference play. Tuesday they entertain Holy Angels at Schmitz-Maki Arena and Thursday close the books on the regular season with a road contest at Northfield. Section 1AA post-season play begins Wednesday, Feb. 6.
"It is now crunch time with the playoffs right around the corner and hopefully we will get the bugs worked out in our last week of the regular season," Holmes said.
"It was really nice to see our young players that have not seen a lot of varsity time also step up and play well against Shakopee. This is a phenomenal sign not only for playoffs but for next year as well."
