By John RittenhouseTurning in better performances didn’t result in victories for the Luverne girls’ hockey team this week.Luverne outshot Watertown, S.D., and Fairmont during games played since last weekend. Watertown, however, topped the Cardinals by five goals in Luverne Saturday and LHS fell by five goals in Fairmont Tuesday.The 0-6 Cards host Benson (4:30 p.m.) Friday and Waseca (1 p.m.) Saturday.Fairmont 8, Luverne 3A late charge by the Cardinals came up short during Tuesday’s five-goal loss in Fairmont.After falling behind 5-0, Luverne netted three goals in a span of 4:04 of the third period to trail 5-3 with less than seven minutes left to play.Fairmont responded to the challenge by receiving two goals from Ashley Olson and one from Nicole Hardt in the final 3:10 of the game to ice the contest.Olson, who led Fairmont with six goals, netted four counters and Clare Wellman added another to give the hosts a 5-0 lead.Luverne received third-period goals from Natalie Morgan, Katie Dahl and Chessa Ossefoort.Morgan netted an unassisted counter with 11:40 remaining in the game, while Dahl and Ossefoort recorded power-play tallies at 8:52 and 7:36 respectively. Morgan and Paige Olson set up Dahl’s counter. Liz Solma and Ramona Taubert received assists for Ossefoort’s goal.Luverne outshot Fairmont 44-26 in the game.Watertown 7, Luverne 3The Cardinals turned in their best performance of the season during a four-goal loss to Watertown in Luverne Saturday.Luverne outshot the Lakers 29-25 in the game and battled the visitors to a tie at two in the first period, but Watertown outscored the Cards 5-1 the rest of the way to win by four goals.Mikki Fitzer, who scored two of Luverne’s three goals, opened the scoring 1:38 into the game after being set up by Solma.Watertown received goals 1:28 apart from Kelsey Muhl and Amanda Bullene to take a 2-1 lead as the first period progressed, but Luverne’s Morgan netted an unassisted counter with 9:56 remaining in the stanza to knot the score at two.Bullene, who scored four goals for the Lakers, found the net twice in the second period and Naomi Gripentrog added another tally as Watertown gained a 5-2 cushion.Natalie Willers and Olson set up a power-play goal by Fitzer to make it a 5-3 game at the 12:21 mark of the third period, but Watertown received goals from Lauren Beadnell and Bullene in the final seven minutes to win by four.Alison Brands stopped 18 shots in net for LHS.