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The Luverne girls’ hockey team hit the ice running over the past week beating Worthington 10-0, Windom 12-1, and St. Peter 1-3. Their only loss was to New Ulm 3-5.
The Cards will face Fairmont at home Tuesday, Nov. 23, and Marshall on the road next week on Nov. 30.
LHS 10, Worthington 0
The Luverne Cardinals got off to a quick start on Thursday night, Nov. 11, at Blue Mound Ice Arena in front of a full arena of fans who witnessed a 10-0 win over the visiting Trojans.
Kamryn Van Batavia got things started 26 seconds into the game when she skated in to the slot and beat Worthington’s Lillyana Newmans top shelf.
Midway through the first period it was Van Batavia again, skating to the slot from a pass from Payton Behr blasting a wrister above Newman’s glove to take a 2-0 lead.
The first period scoring didn’t stop there. Nearly a minute later Luverne senior Billi Connell netted her first goal of the season with assists going to Ella Apel and Greta McClure.
It didn’t take long for this line to get on the scoreboard again when Apel got a beautiful pass out of the corner from Mallory Nelson.
Worthington couldn’t muster many opportunities, but with under a minute remaining, a blocked slapshot led to a Worthington breakaway and senior goalie Cheyenne Schutz made a sliding save to keep the Cardinals ahead 4-0 heading into the first intermission.
The second period started much like the first. Right off the faceoff, Van Batavia took it the distance to get her third goal of the game with the assist going to Behr again.
Luverne’s offense kept getting shots on net and pestering Newman for the next nine minutes until Macie Edstrom found Payton Behr streaking down the boards and outskated Worthington defenders to make it a commanding 6-0 lead.
Behr and the Cardinals were not done yet in the second. When a turnover ended up on Van Batavia’s stick, she slid it over to Behr to beat Newman as the horn went off at BMIA to make it a seven-goal advantage after two periods.
The Cardinals were dominating when a five-minute major penalty was called on Worthington midway through the third period.
Luverne sent its Power Play unit out, and moments later longtime teammates Reghan Bork and Van Batavia worked their magic.
Bork slid a beautiful back door pass to Van Batavia who had a wide-open net to make the score 8-0. The power play wasn’t done yet when Van Batavia to Bork and back to Van Batavia shot a tik-tac-toe goal past Newman.
With a minute left in the game, Bork got a loose puck and took it all alone to the other end and buried it for the 10th and final goal.
The Cardinals looked impressive in their debut. Shots on goal ended with Luverne outshooting the Trojans by a tally of 52-7.
Luverne 3, New Ulm 7
In a battle of two Top 20 teams in Minnesota Girls Class A hockey, the Luverne Cardinals got a slow start and ended up losing to the rival New Ulm Thursday, Nov. 18, in Luverne.
The first period started with a lot of back-and-forth play until halfway through the period New Ulm’s Jada Rahe would get a rebound goal in a scrum in front of Luverne goalie Cheyenne Schutz to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. That’s how the period would end with shots on goal 10-5 in favor of the Eagles.
The second period saw a lot of action. New Ulm jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Afton Hulke got one past Schutz. Twenty-nine seconds later New Ulm would take a three-goal lead when Julia Helget found a pass from Maddi O’ Connor out of the corner and slid it in the net.
It was then Luverne’s turn when Kamryn Van Batavia got the Cardinals on the board 20 seconds later to cut the deficit to two with assists from Payton Behr and Mallory Von Tersch.
Luverne was blown for a penalty with 6:30 remaining in the second period that resulted in a New Ulm penalty shot by Mya Hornick who beat Schutz with a wrister top shelf.
Play would go back and forth until New Ulm’s Julia Helget capitalized on a shorthanded goal to make it 5-1 Eagles.
Mallory Nelson got the lead down to 2-5 with a hard wrister from the point past New Ulm’s Ava Brennan. Assists went to Behr and Van Batavia on the goal. The second period ended with New Ulm holding a 24-15 shots on goal advantage.
The final period started with Greta McClure netting her first goal of the season on a beautiful rebound shot just 1:23 seconds into the third to bring the Cardinals within two.
New Ulm answered back with Malorie Anderson scoring just a minute later to put the Eagles back in the lead by three.
The Cardinal girls kept the pressure on for the next 12 minutes until Coach Sandbulte pulled the goalie to get the sixth skater out there with a little over two minutes left.
The Cardinals’ attempt to narrow the gap resulted in New Ulm getting an empty net goal with 1:17 left in the game. and that’s how it would end up on the scoreboard with the Cardinals losing 3-7.
Shots on goal ended in the Eagles’ favor 37-22.
Luverne 12, Windom 1
After a tough loss to New Ulm Nov. 16, the lady Cardinals went on the road Nov. 18 to Windom to take on the Eagles for a 12-1 win.
The Cardinals erupted for eight first-period goals starting with Greta McClure just 1:31 seconds into the game with assists from Ella Apel and Billi Connell.
Twenty-three seconds later Payton Behr put one past Windom’s Kaylie Baerg with assists from Kamryn Van Batavia and Reghan Bork.
It was Behr again just two minutes later again for her second goal of the game with a feed from Bork.
Luverne would get three more goals in the next four minutes from Van Batavia, McClure and Bork to take a commanding 6-0 lead.
Windom got one back when Presley Docktor beat Cheyenne Schutz midway through the first.
McClure got her third of the game and the first hat trick of her varsity career with 2:08 left in the period. Behr would bury the eighth of the game and also her third of the game to give the Cardinals an 8-1 lead at the end of the first period. Shots on goal were 17-3 in favor of the Cardinals.
The second started just like the first ended with Behr hammering her fourth of the game past Baerg just 33 seconds into the period with assists to Mallory Nelson and Bork.
That’s all the goals there were in the second period in Windom.
The Cardinals put another on the scoreboard to start the third with Hannah Woodley notching her first varsity goal with an assist to Ella Apel.
Luverne got two more third-period goals from Bork and Van Batavia to send the Cardinals back to Luverne with an impressive 12-1 win.
Total shots on goal for the game were 37-20 Cardinals.