By John Rittenhouse
A five-goal performance by sophomore Natalie Domagala wasn’t enough to extend the season for the Luverne girls’ hockey team Saturday.
The 12th-seeded Cardinals took on No. 4 Austin in a quarterfinal-round game of the Section 1A Tournament in Austin on Saturday.
Luverne, coming off its first post-season victory in program history five days earlier, was unable pull off an upset as the Cards came up on the short end of a 7-5 decision.
The loss ends Luverne’s 9-13 campaign, while Austin advanced to Tuesday’s tournament semifinals played in St. Peter.
Domagala, who recently scored her 100th-career goal, did her best to keep the Cardinals in the game with her five-goal effort.
Unfortunately for LHS, Austin received a four-goal effort from Courtney Hughes and counters from three other players while ousting the Cards from the tournament.
Hughes and Kati Radford-Garcia scored goals for the hosts in the first 8:03 of the game before Domagala found the net with 3:41 remaining in the first period after being set up by Stephanie Morgan to make it a 2-1 game.
Jenny Nemitz answered for Austin with 2:32 remaining in the first period to make it a 3-1 difference.
Jenny Braa and Natalie Morgan set up Domagala’s second goal of the game 45 seconds into the second period to make it a one-goal difference, but Kristen Faber and Hughes found the net before the second period was complete to give the hosts a 5-2 lead.
Hughes scored a power-play goal 24 seconds into the third period, but Domagala countered with a goal with 9:55 remaining after being set up by Natalie Morgan to make the score 6-3.
Hughes increased Austin’s lead to 7-3 with a goal at the 8:44 mark of the final period. Domagala scored two more goals with assists going to Maggie Vanden Hoek and Stephanie Morgan as the third period progressed, but it wasn’t enough to catch the hosts.
Luverne outshot Austin 33-30 in the game. Alyssa Wieneke made 23 saves for the Cards.
You must log in to continue reading. Log in or subscribe today.
