Tigers win Mankato Tourney

Published 12:00 am Thursday, January 25, 2007

The U-12B girls&8217; hockey team, sponsored by the Elks, brought home the championship from the Mankato Invitational Tournament this past weekend.

Albert Lea faced a hard skating team from Cottage Grove and came out on top 2-0. Mariah Leach started the scoring in the first period with an unassisted goal. The score would stay at 1-0 until the third period when Natasha Moyer would score from the assist of Megan Pulley.

The game was evenly matched with Cottage Grove outshooting Albert Lea 15-13 but goalie Sydney Conley was up to the task getting the shutout. Taylor Thompson played an aggressive game at her wing position along with Larissa Hacker who showed good puck control in making many accurate passes.

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Albert Lea&8217;s next opponent was Cambridge-Isanti who came out hard and gave Albert Lea a tough game. The first period was scoreless with goalie Christina Schmidt making great saves to keep her team in the game.

Cambridge would get the loan goal of the second period. Albert Lea&8217;s Anna Anderson would break the ice with an unassisted goal at 4:47 of the third period. Natasha Moyer would get the game-winner on the assist from Mariah Leach.

Albert Lea would score three more goals in the final minute of the game. Scoring was Moyer assisted by Sydney Overgaard, and Anderson with two goals assisted by Samantha Stanley.

Albert Lea&8217;s Alexis Gordon had a strong game in front of the opponent&8217;s net. Defensively, Kelsey Thomas played a solid game limiting the opponents to seven shots on goal.

Albert Lea faced another tough opponent in Farmington in the championship game. Farmington scored the only goal of the first period. During the game Albert Lea was called for delay of game

by freezing the puck in the goal crease, allowing Farmington a penalty shot.

Conley came up big stopping the penalty shot with a blocker save. Sarah Savelkoul played strong at her wing position moving the puck up the ice with good passes to her line mates.

The game would remain in Farmington&8217;s favor until 8:19 of the third period when Stanley showed great team leadership moving the puck up the length of the ice from her defense position to get a shot on goal and Pulley would bury the rebound to tie the game.

Mackenzie Waldemar had a great game defensively at the opponent&8217;s blue line and getting many shots on net. Regulation time ended in a tie and went to a five minute sudden victory overtime, but neither team was able to score. The game would be decided by a shootout. Five players from each team had an opportunity to shoot on the opposing goalie with Albert Lea getting two goals to Farmington&8217;s one.

Scoring in the shootout for Albert Lea were Moyer and Anderson. Goalies Christina Schmidt and Conley played strong games keeping their team in the tournament and giving it a chance to win the championship.

The team will next travel to New Ulm for an invitational tournament.