By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne girls’ hockey team advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Section 1A Tournament by posting a one-goal win in overtime against Mankato East in Mankato Tuesday.
Tuesday’s win was preceeded by home losses to Worthington Thursday and Morris-Benson Saturday, which ended an 8-12 regular season for the Cards.
Luverne plays No. 4 seed Austin, a 4-1 winner over Worthington Tuesday, in the section quarterfinals Saturday in Austin. Game time is 7 p.m.
Luverne 4, ME 3
The Cardinal girls recorded their first win in post-season play in the three-year history of the Luverne High School hockey program in Mankato Tuesday.
Playing No. 5 Mankato East on its home ice, the 11th-seeded Cardinals received a pair of goals from Natalie Domagala late in the game to advance in tournament play.
ME, which tied the game at two with a pair of second-period goals, gained its first lead of the night at 3-2 early in the third period.
Luverne, however, received an unassisted goal from Domagala with less than three minutes remaining in regulation play to force overtime. Domagala scored again with 4:00 left in overtime after being set up by Stephanie Morgan to give the Cards their victory.
Jenny Braa gave the Cards a 1-0 lead in the first minute of the game. Domagala and Morgan received assists for the goal.
Domagala set up a goal by Sadie Dietrich that gave LHS a 2-0 cushion in the second period before ME came storming back to knot the score by period’s end.
Alyssa Wieneke stopped 33 of 36 shots to get the win in net. Luverne had 22 shots on goal.
M-B 5, Luverne 4
The Cardinals capped an 8-12 regular season by dropping a one-goal decision in overtime to Morris-Benson in Luverne Saturday.
Luverne took a 4-3 lead with 3:11 remaining in regulation play when Dietrich netted a short-handed goal after being set up by Domagala, but M-B’s A. Janssen tied the game with 34 seconds left in the third period and won it for the visitors with a counter 28 seconds into overtime.
M-B led 1-0 and 2-1 in the first period after receiving goals from K. Mahoney at 12:49 and 3:58.
Domagala tied the game at one after being set up by Morgan at the 12:00 mark of the opening period.
Luverne’s Dana Smeins tied the game at two with a power-play goal with 5:59 remaining in the second period, and the Cards led 3-2 when Domagala found the net with an unassisted tally when LHS was in a short-handed situation at 1:53. Suzanne Gluf and Dietrich set up the goal by Smeins.
M-B’s A. Evenson tied the game at three with a goal 53 seconds into the third period.
Luverne outshot M-B 28-22. Wieneke made 17 saves for LHS.
Worthington 3,
Luverne 0
Luverne’s bid to win a third straight Southwest Conference championship came to an end with a three-goal loss to the Trojans at the Blue Mound Ice Arena Thursday.
With a 3-2 league record entering the tilt, the Cardinals needed to beat Worthington (3-1-1 entering the game) to win the league crown.
Worthington, however, scored one goal in each period and used a standout performance by goalie Danielle Koopman to upend LHS by three goals.
Koopman was brilliant in the net, stopping all 34 shots she faced in the game. Luverne outshot the Trojans 34-15, but they couldn’t get the puck past Worthington’s goalie.
Three different players scored goals for the Trojans.
Amanda Duitsman opened the scoring with 2:17 left in the first period. Kelsey Rogers made it a 2-0 game at 9:31 in the second period. Rebecca Lehr capped the scoring with 7:59 remaining in the third period.
Taylor Nelson made 12 saves in goal for LHS.