Boys Hockey: A clean sweep at Simley

Landon Nielsen 2 goals, assist vs. Albert Lea (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Farmington (8-3-1) completed a dominant, three-game sweep of the Simley Holiday Tournament field Saturday afternoon with a 7-0 shutout victory over Albert Lea in the title game.

Over the three-game tourney the Tigers outscored Simley, Cambrdige-Isanti and Albert Lea by a combined score of 21-4.

The Battle of the Tigers in the title game turned out to be anything but as Farmington dictated play the entire 51 minutes, outshooting Albert Lea by a massive 58-9 count.

"We had three lines score at least two goals," Tiger coach Keith Revels said. "Albert Lea was 5-4 coming in but they weren't on their game and we had things clicking pretty well."

The Tigers set the tone early, peppering Albert Lea goaltender Garret Matz with 20 shots in the opening period, four of which found the back of the net.

Jon Siebenaler, Justin Novak, Grady Hauswirth and Tanner Grubb all scored in the first 17 minutes and Chris Fitzgibbons' goal in the second made it 5-0 with a period to play.

Landon Nielsen scored back-to-back goals in the final period to put an exclamation point on the win that ran the Tigers' unbeaten streak to four games.

Grady Hauswirth goal, assist (photo by Jim Lindquist)

The Tigers dominated all aspects of the title game. In addition to their eye-catching shot numbers, they converted both of their power play opportunities, killed off three man-short situations and generally kept the "other" Tigers back on their heels.

Nick Schoening who manned the nets in Farmington's 8-1 romp over Cambridge-Isanti on Friday was back between the pipes Saturday and barely broke a sweat, finishing with nine saves for his first career shutout.

As has been the case all season the winners did a good job of spreading around the scoring. Six different players recorded goals and a dozen scored at least one point.

The Tigers kick off the new year Friday (Jan. 3) when they pay a visit to Richfield Arena to to take on perennial Missota Conference power Holy Angels. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.