Lake Cowboy Secures Second Seed in Shootout Classic Over Tradition Black

The final night of the Dangle League regular season delivered one final thriller Thursday night at Braemar Arena as Lake Cowboy locked up the league's second seed, surviving Tradition Black 6-5 in a shootout after another tightly contested battle between two teams that simply refuse to play a boring game.

For the second time this summer, the clubs needed a shootout to determine a winner after Lake Cowboy claimed a 4-3 shootout victory in their previous meeting. Thursday's rematch featured 11 goals, momentum swings throughout the evening and another dramatic finish before Tori Anderson scored the lone goal of the shootout to earn the extra point.

Tradition Black wasted no time grabbing the early advantage and just seven seconds into the opening half, Autumn Cooper won the opening draw to Chloe King, who carried the puck into the offensive zone down the left wing and snapped a shot over the blocker of Dani Strom to put Tradition Black in front 1-0 almost before fans had settled into their seats.

Lake Cowboy answered with an equally impressive response with Lauren O'Hara helped creating traffic around the crease before Anna Jerylo cleaned up a rebound at the 27:50 mark to even the score. Just 43 seconds later, O'Hara again generated the initial chance around the net and Avalyn Mikkelson buried another loose puck, giving Lake Cowboy its first lead of the evening at 2-1.

After the frantic opening minutes, the game settled considerably. Both teams became more structured as Dani Strom and Ashlyn Hazelett found their rhythm in goal for each team. Despite slower-than-normal ice conditions on Braemar Arena's West Rink as the soon to be replaced aging chiller system battled weeks of Twin Cities heat, both teams adjusted well and quality scoring chances became much harder to find through the remainder of the opening half.

The second half began with a familiar sight, an early goal.  This time it was Addy Morris finishing off a three way set up down the slot from Avery Achterkirch and Cooper to level the game at 2 goals a piece. 

The offensive pace took off from there and didn't stop throughout the second half. Bella Fanale finished a setup from King to restore Tradition Black's lead at 25:50, but Lake Cowboy answered three minutes later as Kendra Distad redirected a feed from Stella Retrum and Josie Hemp to knot the game once again, this time at 3.

With the teams trading momentum, King completed her hat trick midway through the half. Taking a pass from Avery Achterkirch and Claire Jelinek, King found space and fired home her third goal of the night, giving Tradition Black another one-goal advantage.

Lake Cowboy refused to let the game slip away though and it was the steady O'Hara who scored unassisted at the 15:29 mark to even the contest before striking again just 44 seconds later. After crisp puck movement from Isa Goettl and Kendra Distad, O'Hara snapped home her second goal of the evening, putting Lake Cowboy back in front 5-4.

Tradition Black answered one final time and it was Addie Morris who converted a setup from Achterkirch and Cooper at the 29:17 mark to tie the game at five, capping a second half that featured eight combined goals and sending the contest into overtime.

Neither club could solve the goaltenders during the extra session, setting the stage for another shootout between the two rivals.

Dani Strom turned aside four of five attempts in the skills competition, while Kaitlin Groess answered with four saves of her own before Tori Anderson finally broke through in the fifth round, slipping home the deciding goal to secure Lake Cowboy's second shootout victory over Tradition Black this season.

O'Hara paced Lake Cowboy with two goals and four assists in one of the league's most complete individual performances of the summer. Jerylo added a goal and an assist, while Mikkelson and Distad also scored in regulation. For Tradition Black, King recorded the hat trick while Cooper finished with three assists, consistently driving the offense every time she stepped onto the ice.

The victory secures second place for Lake Cowboy entering the Dangle League playoffs, while Tradition Black once again demonstrated why its record is misleading. Having pushed Lake Cowboy to shootouts in both meetings this season, Tradition Black has shown it is more than capable of challenging any team in the league when the postseason begins.