Boys Hockey: Ending on a high note

Jack Erickson scored twice in regular season finale (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Farmington closed the books on its regular season with a 3-1 Missota Conference win Thursday night at Shakopee.

The victory left the Tigers with a final mark of 12-12-1 overall and 5-8-1 in Missota Conference play, good enough for a fourth place tie with Chaska. Seeding for next week's Section 1AA tournament will be held over the weekend.

Jack Erickson paced the Tiger effort at Shakopee, scoring two goals early in the third period to break a 1-1 deadlock and make sophomore goaltender Jon Seurer a winner in his first varsity start.

Quality special teams play left the Tigers unscathed in a scoreless first period that saw the visitors skate off three shorthanded situations.

The Sabers did score on their next power play opportunity early in the second period to draw first blood but two minutes later Corey Rudrud knotted the score on a goal from Zach Colaw and Justin Hyytinen.

Erickson provided the game-winner from Dallas Tucker and Justin Novak 6:32 into the final period and then scored again two minutes later when he secured the puck at center ice and took it all the way to the net.

"He (Erickson) has another gear speed-wise that allows him to gain seperation form defending players," Tiger coach Keith Revels said.

Thanks to nine Farmington  penalties and six power play opportunities Shakopee finished the night with a 30-28 advantage in shots on goal.

Zach Colaw goal, assist in final two games (photo by Jim Lindquist)

"We have been doing a nice job limiting penalties but we took more than we needed to last night," Revels said. " There was a scuffle towards the end of the game where several of them occurred. Emotions were running pretty high on both sides."

Seurer, who finished the junior varsity season unbeaten with a 96 percent save percentage, made his varsity debut a memorable one, finishing with 29 saves.

"That was a pretty amazing performance under some very tough conditions," Revels said.

Revels said he has his opinion about where his team should rank in the Section 1AA post-season pecking order but added he wasn't about to predict how the final brackets would look.

"The .500 record is comparable to the Big Nine Conference schools that we beat head to head," he said. "Mayo is the only section team to beat us and have a better record. Time will tell how the voting goes."

Opening round games are scheduled for Tuesday with quarterfinal play slated for Thursday at the higher-seeded team.

Chaska 3 Farmington 2
Tuesday the visiting Hawks scored twice in the final 3:13 to defeat the Tigers at Schmitz-Maki Arena.

Colaw and Kevin Olund accounted for the Farmington goals. Colaw's score was his first of his senior season. Novak assisted on Olund's first period goal.