By Mike Simmons, staff writer

The Albert Lea girls&8217; hockey team pitched its third consecutive shutout over Mankato East Tuesday night at Albert Lea&8217;s City Arena. The Tigers scored early and often against the young Cougars&8217; team and cruised to a 9-0 win. A.L. also beat East 9-0 earlier in the season in Mankato.

&8220;Because of the score we had a chance to work on some different things tonight and were able to get a lot of girls playing time,&8221; said Tigers head coach Brian Blatti. &8220;There is always a concern though when you play a team like this that isn&8217;t as experienced, you worry about how it will effect your game. But it&8217;s not a big concern, the girls have their game face on and are ready to face Austin.&8221;

To say the Cougars are young would be a gross understatement. They have eight players that are still in junior high, including the starting goalie who is just an eighth-grader and has been in goal for just a little over a week.

Facing the youth of East it was no surprise that the 13th-ranked Tigers scored two goals on just two shots in the first 2:30 by Abby Leach and Madi Passingham for a 2-0 advantage.

Seven minutes later Jenna Christensen lit the lamp on a breakaway while Lauren Klick put the finishing touches on a 4-0 first period with a power play goal with 4:19 remaining in the first period.

Looking to close this one out and work on their passing and communication, the Tigers scored five more goals in the second period and led 9-0 with over five minutes remaining. Two of scores were shorthanded goals by Christensen and Amy Gackstetter.

Christensen once again led the Tigers&8217; offensive attack with two goals and two assists while Klick added two goals and one assist.

With a running clock in the third and final period the Tigers did just enough to keep themselves sharp, but attempted just four shots on goal compared to 13 and 14 in the first two periods. East, on the other hand, had just 18 shots on goal for the entire game.

With the win, the Tigers move to 13-5 overall and 8-4 in the Big Nine. A.L. trails Rochester Mayo, Owatonna and Mankato West in the conference

standings.

A.L. will be back in action Thursday when it travels to Austin to face the Packers who defeated the Tigers 5-3 earlier in the year.

Albert Lea 9, Mankato East 0

AL –

4

5

0 – 9

ME – 0

0

0 – 0

Scoring Summary

First Period

AL – Abby Leach (Amy Gackstetter), Madi Passingham (Lauren Klick), Jenna Christensen (unassisted), Klick (Christensen, Katie Nelson)

Second Period

AL – Nicole Wilson (Leach), Klick (unassisted), Jacqui Jepson (Sophia Jepson, Christensen), Christensen (unassisted), Gackstetter (Morgan Walton)