Wild Night of Hockey
Edina, MN Two one goal games capped off a dramatic evening of Celly League hockey from Braemar Arena. ACE Hardware picked took sole possession of first place with a dramatic win over TRIA while Tradition Mortgage earned their first victory in a shootout over REMAX Advantage Plus 3-2.
ACE Hardware 5 - TRIA 4
MNHockey.Tv Play-by-Play man Matt Harington dubbed this 5-4 thriller the game of the year so far and he was not wrong. If anyone would know it would be Harrington who said, “It had everything, lead changes great pace and intensity.”
Ella Boerger (UST) had a golden opportunity with time winding down and a potential shootout looming. Boerger walked in on the goal and with a partial breakaway and protected the puck through some sticks and bodies and ran out of room as the puck went wide. She stayed with it and found the back of the net as she continued her pursuit to the net. Her shot may have hit a TRIA defender on the way in and it eluded goalie Hailey Hanson (MSU for the game winning goal.
Neither team led by more than a goal and there were five lead changes on the game. Marie Moran (SCSU) had 2 goals for ACE, Cara Sajevic (UST) had 2 assists, and Addie Finn (UNH) had a goal and an assist to join Boerger with 2 point efforts.
Stella Retrum (PSU) had a goal and an assist for TRIA and was an offensive threat each night. Ellah Hause (UST) Lauren O’Hara (Minnesota), and Chloe Boreen (UST) all scored for TRIA. Goalie Dani Strom (UST) played the entire game in goal and made 23 saves to earn her third win of the season.
ACE jumped ahead of Lake Cowgirl with a 5-1 record and 15 points on the season yet have played one more game so far. TRIA is just one game back of Lake Cowgirl with 9 points and a 3-3 record.
Tradition Mortagage 3 - REMAX Advantage 2 (so)
A second competitive game of the night featured REMAX Advantage Plus and Tradition Mortgage. It was a rematch of an earlier game this season that saw REMAX cruise to a 7-2 win.
The game was tightly contested from the start and Ellie Morrison (Dartmouth) had a goal and assist on both REMAX goals helping her team to the win. Goalie Annika was strong in net making 20 saves. Lavender has anchored her REMAX team playing in every half thus far in the campaign.
Jane Kuehl (Princeton) scored from Maya Jones (Union) midway through the second half to cut the 2-0 deficit to 2-1. Grace Delmonico (SCSU) tied the game with 2:53 remaining in the half with a laser of a wrist shot to beat Lavender to level the game at two.
Tradition Mortgage went to work going three for three in the shootout. Goalie Lauren Larson (Sacred Heart) was perfect in goal with 15 second half saves while stopping 1 of 2 shootout opportunities from REMAX.
The regular season will end after Thursday evenings games with the playoffs slated to begin next week per commissioner Randy Koeppl in a change of league format. The players union objected briefly but understood it is going to be a wild week next week.