The Luverne Cardinal Girls’ hockey team season came to an end during the Minnesota State Hockey Tournament Thursday.
The Cardinals met a solid South St. Paul team in the quarterfinals falling 3-1 before dropping a contest to River Lakes the next day 4-2.
The Cardinals finish the year with an impressive 23-5 record.
LHS 1, South St. Paul 3
The No. 5 seeded Luverne Cardinals opened the 2022 Minnesota Girls State Hockey Tournament facing the No. 4 seeded South St. Paul Packers.
It was the first time in school history that Luverne drew a top five seed in the state tournament.
South St. Paul open the scoring 2:35 in the first period when Inga Oelerking fired a shot from point to beat Luverne Cheyenne Schutz for the early 1-0 lead.
The Packers struck again seven minutes later when Eva Beck dumped a puck into the Luverne zone and found the back of the net to take the second goal lead going into the first intermission.
Shots on goal for the period were 16-4 in favor of South St. Paul. Schutz had 12 saves in the period.
The Cardinals got on the board when Payton Behr took a Mallory Von Tersch pass into the zone and blasted a wrister on the packers’ goalie Delaney Norman.
Kamryn Van Batavia got the rebound as she was crashing into Norman to get the goal to cut the Packers lead to 2-1.
South St. Paul responded when Lilie Ramirez took the puck end to end and threw a shot on Schutz. After Schutz made a couple saves, the Packers’ Aliyah Danielson got the rebound goal to make it 3-1 Packers after two periods.
Shots on goal for the second period were knotted at 12.
The final period saw both teams getting some opportunities, but nothing got past Schutz and Norman, and the game ended in favor of the Packers 3-1.
Shots on goal for the third period were 13-4 in favor of the Packers. Total shots on goal for the game were 41-21 in favor of South St. Paul. Luverne senior goalie Cheyenne Schutz made 38 saves in the loss.
Luverne 2, River Lakes 4
The Cardinal Girls met the River Lakes Stars on Thursday in the consolation side of the state tournament at the TRIA Rink.
River Lakes jumped out to take the lead at 6:17 in the first period when Sophia Hess dangled her way to Luverne goalie Cheyenne Schutz.
Schutz made the initial save but River Lakes Abby Storms buried the rebound goal to give the Stars the 1-0 lead.
The Stars got another late goal in the first period when Sophia Hess took a pass into the slot and beat Schutz to take a 2-0 lead into intermission No. 1.
Shots on goal for the period were 13-13. Schutz had 11 saves for the Cardinals.
The Cardinals got on the board when Reghan Bork took the puck out of the Cardinals defensive zone and found a streaking Kamryn Van Batavia who took the puck into the offensive zone and fired a wrister above River Lakes Goalie Kaydence Roeske glove to cut the lead River Lakes lead to 2-1.
After a Luverne player covered the puck in Schutz’s goal crease, River Lakes got the penalty shot and Kianna Roeske beat Schutz to take the 3-1 lead midway through the second period.
River Lakes got another when Roeske got behind the Cardinal defenders to go in all alone and get one past Schutz to give the Stars a 4-1 lead going into the final period.
Shots on goal for the second period were in favor of the Stars 16-8.
In the final period Luverne pounded 15 shots on River Lakes. Van Batavia took a feed from Payton Behr and blasted a wrister past Roeske to cut the Stars’ lead to 4-2.
The Cardinals battled but couldn’t get anything past Roeske and the Stars would go on to win the game 4-2.
The Cardinals’ impressive season came to an end, as did the high school hockey careers of seniors Reghan Bork, Cheyenne Schutz and Brenn Siebenahler.
Shots on goal for the third period were 15-9 in favor of the Cardinals. Total shots for the game were 38-36 in favor of the Stars.