By Mark HaugenLuverne scored early but not often enough as the Cardinals lost their season-opening girls’ hockey match 9-3 Friday to the Austin Packers at the Blue Mound Ice Arena.Senior scoring ace Natalie Domagala secured the opening faceoff and scored the first goal of her hat trick eight seconds into the opening period. But Austin answered quickly with a wrap-around goal at the 15:39 mark to tie the game 1-1.Domagala knocked home her second unassisted goal with 2:38 left in the first, but it was short-lived as the Packers answered 34 seconds later with another goal.Luverne’s 2-2 lead went to pieces in the second period as Austin exploded for five goals and a 7-2 lead by the time the period was over.Two more Packer goals in the third, and Domagala’s third goal with 2:59 left in the game (assisted by Paige Olson) wrapped up the scoring."They were quicker and our girls just got tired at the end of the first period," Coach Dave Siebenahler said. "They skated good and hard the first period and then just ran out of gas. Then, when you get tired, you start making mental and physical mistakes."Luverne’s eighth-grade goalie stopped 41 of 50 shots."I was impressed with the younger players," Siebenahler said. "The seventh-graders did real well against the juniors and seniors from Austin. We just have a lot of things to work on yet to get things where we want them to be."The Cardinals managed only 26 shots on goal. "One of our goals as a team is to shoot 30-plus shots and keep our opponent under 20 shots," Siebenahler said."Usually, when we do that, we can come out on top. We just have to improve on our shots and block theirs."Luverne will shoot to achieve that formula Thursday night when they host Sioux Falls Blue and Saturday night when they host New Ulm.