The Luverne girls’ hockey team faced two conference opponents and one non-conference team this past week, winning two and giving up one.
The Cardinals beat Worthington handily 11-0 at home Jan. 24 before taking down the Tigers 4-2 in Marshall on Jan. 26.
The Cardinals then hosted a worthy foe on Jan. 28 when Breck beat the home team 3-0.
The Luverne girls are now 16-6 for the season and 11-0 in the conference.
The Cardinals will travel to Windom Thursday, Feb. 2, and to Waseca Saturday, Feb. 4, before wrapping up the regular season at home against Fairmont Tuesday, Feb. 7.
LHS 11, Worthington 0
The LHS girls’ hockey team blanked Worthington at home 11-0 on Tuesday, Jan. 24, when the Trojans were unable to keep up with the Cardinals’ experience and up-tempo game play.
“The girls had good energy and pep from the start,” said head coach Tony Sandbulte.
Sophomore Payton Behr was on fire, recording a hat trick in the first period when senior Kamryn Van Batavia also added two goals.
Behr scored her first at 0:37 in the game assisted by Kamryn Van Batavia and her seventh-grade sister, Ellie Van Batavia.
Behr scored again at 3:37 assisted by Kamryn Van Batavia.
Her third hat trick goal came at 9:16 assisted by Kamryn and Ellie once again.
Kamryn Van Batavia scored her first goal at 2:20 assisted by freshman Ella Apel and her second at 9:51 assisted by her younger sister Ellie.
The Cardinals ended the first period 5-0.
In the second period senior Mallory Nelson kept the drive alive, scoring at 6:24 assisted by eighth-graders Rylee Kurtz and Tenley Behr.
Kamryn Van Batavia scored her third goal at 8:43 assisted by eighth-grader Macie Edstrom and Ellie Van Batavia.
Minutes later Kamryn Van Batavia scored yet again at 9:14 assisted by sister Ellie.
Freshman Greta McClure finished the period scoring at 11:01 assisted by Tenley Behr and freshman Paula Martinez.
Luverne ended the second period ahead by nine.
The third period saw two more goals from Luverne, one at 4:01 by eighth-grader Izzy Steensma assisted by Kamryn Van Batavia and Kurtz and the other at 14:45 by Kamryn Van Batavia, her fifth in the game, assisted by Ellie and Kurtz.
Senior Mallory Von Tersch knocked away the seven shots on goal from Worthington to record her seventh shut-out.
The Cardinals registered 37 shots on goal in the game.
Worthington’s senior goalie Lilyana Newman had a hard time contending with Luverne’s attraction to the Trojans’ goal, but she kept in the game, stopping 26 shots.
LHS 4, Marshall 2
The LHS girls’ hockey team prevailed over Marshall Thursday, Jan. 26, in Marshall, beating the Tigers 4-2.
Marshall started the first period scoring at 0:53, a quick score that lasted until 6:05 when Luverne’s Kamryn Van Batavia scored assisted by Mallory Nelson.
The Tigers finished the first period with one more goal to take the lead 2-1.
The second period lone goal was from Kamryn Van Batavia who scored on a power play at 15:13 assisted by Edstrom and Apel.
In the third period the Cardinals netted two more goals to lock the game win at 4-2.
Tenley Behr scored at 1:55 assisted by McClure, and Steensma and Edstrom beat the Marshall goalie at 14:44 assisted by the Van Batavia sisters.
Luverne took 38 shots on goal for the game compared to Marshall’s 23 attempts.
Breck 3, LHS 0
Luverne hosted the Breck Mustangs from Golden Valley Saturday, Jan. 28.
Breck made the long trip worthwhile, upending the Cardinals 3-0 with a late push in the third period.
In the first two periods Luverne and Breck went up and down the ice testing each other’s game play.
Luverne took 26 shots at the Mustang goalie in the game to no avail. Breck shot 29 times, beating Mallory Von Tersch three times.
In the third period the Mustangs finally broke the ice, scoring at 8:54 on a power play.
Sensing that Luverne needed to made a move, the Cardinals pulled their goalie with about two minutes left in the game to gain an attacker.
The plan was working until Breck was able to push an opposite ice shot into Luverne’s empty net at 15:27.
Luverne put Von Tersch back in the net after going down 2-0 to finish the game.
Breck was able to score one more time with 29 seconds left in the game, making a heartbreaker shot that caught Luverne by surprise and cemented the Mustangs’ 3-0 win.