About 12 minutes through the second period, after the Albert Lea Tigers took a 3-1 lead, Rochester Century coach Bruce Frutiger pulled his starting goalie in favor of senior Aaron Rettke.

Wednesday, December 22, 1999

About 12 minutes through the second period, after the Albert Lea Tigers took a 3-1 lead, Rochester Century coach Bruce Frutiger pulled his starting goalie in favor of senior Aaron Rettke.

It turned out to be a wise move. At least until overtime.

Rettke held the Tigers scoreless and Century tied in regulation, but Albert Lea scored just nine seconds into the extra period to win 4-3 in a Big Nine boys’ hockey game at the City Arena Tuesday night.

The win improved the Tigers to 3-0, all against conference foes and two of them one-goal games.

&uot;It was a very exciting game,&uot; said Tigers coach Roy Nystrom. &uot;I tell you what, the fans that come to see us this year are going to see a lot of games like this. I said at the beginning of the year we were going to have a lot of tight games and, so far, that’s the way it’s went.&uot;

It could be said the Tigers not only outscored the Panthers but outworked them as well. Albert Lea skated two lines most of the night to Century’s four.

&uot;We played hard tonight,&uot; said Nystrom. &uot;You’ve got to give our kids a lot of credit. They wanted to win and they did everything they possibly could do to win it.&uot;

The Tigers took a quick 1-0 lead, with senior captain Jeremy Jacobson putting the puck in the net just 2:49 into the first period. Tristan Sather and Nick Kruse assisted. It was the only goal of the first period.

Chris Stanek scored on a power play at 8:21 of the second period to make it 2-0, assisted by Brandon Drescher.

The Panthers finally found the net at the 10:13 mark, but the Tigers answered at 12:04 with Josh Seeger scoring on an assist from Dusty Wangen.

Century tied it with goals at 4:10 and 8:10 of the third period.

The puck was briefly in the Albert Lea zone in overtime before the Tigers took it the other way. Levi Hendrickson scored the gamewinner, assisted by Kellen Schulte and Wangen.

Senior Jason Solberg was in goal for the Tigers for the third consecutive game. Albert Lea outshot Rochester Century 32-29. Both teams took three penalties.

&uot;It was a total team victory,&uot; said Nystrom. &uot;Everyone who played tonight made a contribution.&uot;

The Tigers travel to the Twin Cities for the Blake Invitational Dec. 28-30, facing a strong East Grand Forks team in the opening round.