Boys Hockey: Tigers drop a close one at Northfield

Devin Bernu scored first varsity goal (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Farmington (5-7-1) has played 13 games this season with seven of them decided by one goal and another ending in a tie. No one can say that coach Keith Revels' young and mostly inexperienced team hasn't been competitive.

Tuesday night's Missota Conference road game at Northfield was the latest in the season of heart-pounders with Farmington coming out on the short end of a 2-1 count.

"We have loads of young talent," Revels said, "but sometimes we forget just how young we really are. Looking through our roster, we have only five of 20 varsity players who have weathered a full season of high school hockey"

Freshman Devin Bernu (from Jack Erickson) netted his first varsity goal at 9:32 of the opening period that gave the visitors a lead that would hold up until the Raiders scored twice in a three-minute span midway through the second to close out the night's scoring.

Gage Overby started in goal for the Tigers for the third consecutive game and continued to be effective. The sophomore netminder, who has allowed six scores in the three starts, turned away 26 of 28 shots in the losing effort.

"We played four lines early on in an effort to save our legs," Revels said. "I can't remember a time where we have used four lines in a game where the outcome had not already been decided. Our dpeth is a one of our strengths.

"We did a nice job on their top line against a team that has 12 seniors on the roster. We played hard and gave ourselves a chance to win a conference road game against a 10-3 team."

Friday night the Tigers return ti Schmitz-Maki Arena for a Missota Conference tilt against defending league champion Chanhassen.