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Luverne boys' hockey open season with 3-0 record

Lead Summary
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By
Matt Lais for the Star Herald

The Cardinals had a busy span of days with three games in seven days that ended with an impressive 3-0 record on the year.
The Luverne boys hockey team hosted Marshall for a thrilling 7-6 overtime win Nov. 30 and traveled to Redwood Falls Dec. 2 to pick up an easier 13-0 victory before returning home Saturday to beat Waseca 10-1.
New Ulm comes to the Blue Mound Ice Arena Friday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m. for a big Section 3 game.
 
Luverne 7, Marshall 6
Hockey fans couldn’t have asked for a more thrilling game when the Luverne boys’ hockey opened the season on Tuesday, Nov. 30, at Blue Mound Ice Arena against the Marshall Tigers.
Three periods were not enough, so overtime decided the contest with Luverne coming up with the win.
It took 4:28 into the first period for the hometown Cardinals to get on the board. Sophomore Owen Sudenga dug a puck out of the corner to find junior Brock Behrend in the high slot, and he blasted a high wrister above the glove of Marshall’s goalie Ezra Maurice to take a 1-0 lead.
But the lead wouldn’t last but two minutes when Marshall scored two unanswered goals within 35 seconds of each other to take the lead from the Cardinals.
The Cardinals answered back with a beautiful pass from Behrend to Patrick Kroski who slid it past Maurice to tie the game at 2-2 halfway through the first period.
The Cardinals and Tigers went back and forth the rest of the period until Marshall went on the power play with 2:35 left in the period. Patrick Kroski intercepted a Marshall pass on the blue line and it beat Maurice for Kroski’s second score of the game with a big shorthanded goal with just 35 seconds left to give Luverne a 3-2 lead going into the locker room.
Shots on goal were 13-11 in favor of Luverne.
In the second period Luverne and Marshall traded a couple of goals each. At 4:04 into the period, Luverne’s Ethan Langseth fired a hard shot from the blue line, and Owen Sudenga buried the rebound for the Cardinals to take a two-goal lead.
Marshall answered back on the power play to narrow the gap to one.
It was the Cardinals’ turn on the power play when Kroski executed a wrap-around goal from behind the net with an Elliot Domagala assist to bring the lead back to two.
Marshall again capitalized on the penalty with a big goal with .9 seconds left in the period to bring the Tigers within one at the end of the second period.
Shots on goal for the period were 15-12 with Luverne goalie Tyler Arends making some big saves.
Like any rivalry, the game saw a lot of physical play, and the third period wasn’t any different, with a total of eight penalties in the period.
Marshall’s Zach Kramer ran into Arends, and a massive scrum ensued that led to five penalties and put Marshall on the power play on the major penalty. They capitalized on the opportunity with two goals within 24 seconds of each other to take the lead 6-5 early in the third period.
Down by one, the Cardinals didn’t give up, firing shot after shot on Maurice. With a smidge over a minute left in the game, Behrend fired a wrister on net and crashing winger Brady Bork got a big rebound on the backdoor and buried it to tie the game and force an exciting overtime.
In overtime Luverne threw a fury of shots in the first three minutes on Maurice. The Cardinals got the puck to defenseman Will Serie who blasted a hard wrister through the legs of Maurice to give the Cardinals an exciting win in front of their hometown fans.
Shots on goal for the game ended at 39-37 in favor of the Cardinals. Arends ended the game with 31 saves.
 
Luverne 13,
Redwood Falls 0
With the first away game of the season Thursday, the long bus ride didn’t slow the Cardinals boys down at all. They never let up in Redwood Falls.
Patrick Kroski got the scoring started for Luverne 5:55 into the game with an assist from Brady Bork to take a 1-0 lead. Not even two minutes later Luverne’s Brock Behrend beat Redwood Valley’s goalie Camden Cilek, with an assist by Henry Hartquist, to give the Luverne Cardinals a two-goal lead. Hartquist again got an assist with a goal from junior Caleb Hein, with sophomore Tucker Damann also assisting. The first period ended 3-0 in Luverne’s favor with a very commanding lead in shots on goal, 30-6.
The floodgates opened in the second, with Luverne making seven unanswered goals.
Blaik Bork made it 4-0 on an unassisted goal five minutes in. Behrend got his second goal of the game two minutes later with assists going to Owen Sudenga and senior Ethan Langseth. Brady Bork made his first of the game with a little over 11 minutes left in the second period, with assist going to Kroski.
With nine minutes left, Kroski would beat Cilek to make it 7-0. Brady Bork scored again at the 11-minute mark of the period. It was Sudenga and Tucker Damann getting the last two goals of the period to give Luverne a 10-goal lead at intermission. Luverne goalie Tyler Arends get the 0 on the scoreboard. Shots on goal were 52-13 Luverne.
Sudenga made two more goals to register his first varsity hat trick, and Henry Hartquist scored one more to close out the third period.
Arends got the shutout for Luverne. Total shots on goal for the game were Luverne 62, Redwood 18.
 
Luverne 10, Waseca 1
The Luverne boys’ hockey team was back at the Blue Mound Ice Arena Saturday against Waseca.
It didn’t take long for the Cardinals to get on the board in the first period. Luverne sophomore Patrick Kroski beat Waseca’s Eli Wetzel just 44 seconds into the game with assist going to Brock Behrend.
Four minutes later defenseman Henry Hartquist blasted a shot past Wetzel to give the Cardinals a two-goal lead five minutes into the game.
Waseca got on the scoreboard midway through the period, beating Luverne goalie Tyler Arends. The first period ended 2-1 with Luverne having an 18-14 advantage in shots on goal.
Arends made 13 saves in the period.
Luverne pulled away from Waseca in the second. Brady Bork, Elliot Domagala, and Kroski each got one goal, and Blaik Bork put a couple past Wetzel to make the score 7-1 after two periods.
Sudenga had a couple of assists, and Behrend had three in the second for the hometown Cardinals. Shots on goal for the period were 12-11 Luverne.
The third period started with Sudenga picking up two goals at the 2:00 and the 7:53 mark. Domagala and Brady Bork assisted on the goals.
Kroski got his third goal of the game with an assist to Behrend.
Tyler Arends made another three saves in the period and ended with 27 on the game. Finals shot on goal were 40-28 in favor of Luverne.
The Cardinals boys had an impressive first week of the season and moved to 3-0 on the year.
New Ulm comes to the Blue Mound Ice Arena Friday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m. for a big Section 3 game.

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