Luverne senior Dan Park positions himself in front of Windom’s net during the first period of Tuesday’s Southwest Conference boys’ hockey game in Luverne. Park scored one goal to help LHS up its SWC record to 2-0 with a 5-1 win over the Eagles.
By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne boys’ hockey team remained unbeaten for the season after playing three games in a six-day span.
The Cardinals posted a three-goal win in Worthington Thursday before battling Wadena-Deer Creek to a draw at two in Wadena Saturday. The Cards then whipped Windom by four goals in Luverne Tuesday.
Luverne, 5-0-1 overall, hosts Dodge County Saturday.
Luverne 5, Windom 1
Five unanswered goals by the Cardinals sealed their second Southwest Conference win of the season at the Blue Mound Ice Arena Tuesday.
Windom opened the scoring when AnthonyNemtz found the net 1:49 into the game, but the Cards outscored the Eagles 5-0 the rest of the way to win handily.
Eric Lammert and Andy Hess led the Cardinals to victory by recording three points each. Lammert had a pair of goals and one assist. Hess had two assists and one counter.
Tony Smedsrud tied the game at one with a power-play goal at the 9:52 mark of the first period. Hess, who set up Smedsrud’s tally, netted a short-handed goal at 6:08 of the opening period to put the Cards in front.
Lammert received an assist for the goal by Hess, and scored a pair of goals in the first five minutes of the third period to ice the win for LHS. Gregg Fuerstenberg and Chris Morgan set up Lammert’s first goal. Thomas Gluf and Smedsrud received assists for his second tally.
Dan Park capped the scoring with a short-handed goal set up by Hess late in the game.
Cody Gehrke stopped 15 of 16 shots in goal for the Cards. Luverne had 34 shots on goal in the game.
Luverne 2, W-DC 2
A late rally by the Cardinals gave them a tie during Saturday’s game in Wadena.
Trailing 2-0 after Wadena-Deer Creek’s Andy Murray scored his second goal of the game with 11:52 remaining in the third, things didn’t look good for LHS.
The Cardinals, however, rallied to score a pair of goals before regulation play was complete and skated to a scoreless draw with the hosts during an eight-minute overtime session.
Smedsrud ignited Luverne’s comeback by scoring a power-play goal with 10:45 left in regulation play. Morgan and Matt Reverts received assists for the goal.
After pulling goalie Gehrke in favor of an extra skater with less than 1:30 left to play, Luverne was rewarded for the move when Hess netted an unassisted goal with 49 seconds remaining.
Each team had four shots on goal in the extra overtime period, leaving W-DC with a 29-23 advantage in that area at game’s end.
Gehrke saved 27 of 29 shots. He was beaten by Murray with 38 seconds left in the first period, and again in the third period.
Luverne 4,
Worthington 1
The Cardinals opened Southwest Conference play by posting a three-goal victory in Worthington Thursday.
Smedsrud netted a pair of goals for the winners, and goalie Gehrke stopped 17 of 18 shots to highlight the win.
Power-play goals by Smedsrud and Tyler Elbers in a span of 1:07 in the first period gave the Cards a 2-0 advantage. Gehrke received an assist for Smedsrud’s goal at 7:20. Park and Reverts set up Elbers’ counter at 6:13.
Worthington’s Drew Seifert scored at 6:01 of the opening period before Hess countered with an unassisted effort at 2:17 to give the Cards a 3-1 lead.
Smedsrud capped the scoring with his second goal of the game at 9:48 in the second period. Lammert set up Smedsrud’s tally.
Luverne outshot the hosts 31-18 in the game.