Goals galore
Published 12:22 am Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Hacker leads Tigers 10-2 season-opening rout of Bluejays
The Albert Lea Tigers boys’ hockey team looked in mid-season form Tuesday in their season-opener on against the Waseca Bluejays.
The Tigers (1-0, 0-0 Big Nine) scored nine goals in the first two periods to rout the Blue Jays 10-2 at City Arena.
“We skated hard and dominated the game,” Tigers head coach Roy Nystrom said. “We played hard tonight.”
The Tigers were led by juniors Levi Hacker and Eric Carlson.
Hacker recorded a hat trick with three goals and recorded three assists for a six-point night, while Carlson also recorded six points with two goals and four assists.
The two combined for five goals and eight assists.
“All of the guys played hard tonight,” Nystrom said. “Hacker was in the right place at the right time.”
As a team, Albert Lea tallied 49 shots on goal, while the defense held the Bluejays to 15 shots on goal.
Through the first two periods, Albert Lea owned a 44-7 shot advantage.
“A lot of those shots were from good spots, Nystrom said. “We just took what they gave us.”
From the drop of the puck, it took Albert Lea three minutes and six seconds to score the games first goal as Larry Olson drove home a shot to take a 1-0 lead.
About four minutes later, The Tigers scored again when Hacker scored on a power play to give Albert Lea a 2-0 lead.
Less than two minutes later, Cody Haaland took a pass from Hacker and slapped home a shot to make the score 3-0.
Thirteen seconds later, Tiger’s Austin Larson found the net to give Albert Lea a 4-0 lead in the first period.
A little over two minutes later, it was Carlson who got on the board when he got one past the goaltender to give Albert Lea a 5-0 lead with 5:11 left in the first period.
Waseca got on the scoreboard with 3:33 left in the first period when Nathan Palm took a pass from Joey Helms to cut the Tigers’ lead down to 5-1 after the first period.
However, the Tigers poured it on in the second period scoring four goals to jump out to a 9-1 lead.
Hacker scored twice in the second period to earn the hat trick, while Carlson and Dillion Stolt also got goals in the period.
In the third period, Albert Lea got a goal from David Enstad to give the Tigers a 10-1 advantage with 14:45 left in the game.
Several seconds later, the Bluejays got their second goal of the night when Brad McIntosh found the net to make the score 10-2.
Albert Lea tallied 13 saves on the night, while Waseca made 39 saves.
Albert Lea is in action Thursday when they travel to Northfield to take on the Raiders.