The Luverne Cardinals boys’ hockey team advanced to 11-9 on the season, picking up wins against Marshall Tuesday, Feb. 1, Morris Benson Area Saturday, Feb. 5, and Windom Monday, Feb. 7.
The Cardinals were scheduled to play Fairmont on the road Tuesday, and they’ll host Minnesota River Friday at Blue Mound Ice Arena before traveling to Le Sueur Saturday for a make-up game against Minnesota River.
Luverne 4, Marshall 2
The Cardinals headed to Marshall Tuesday, Feb. 1, for a Big Section 3, Big South Conference rivalry game.
Luverne got on the board first when sophomore Elliot Domagala beat Marshall’s goalie Ezra Maurice at 13:57 of Period 1. The assist went to Patrick Kroski.
Luverne goalie Tyler Arends stood tall, keeping Marshall off the scoreboard in the period by making 12 saves. Marshall had a 12-8 advantage in shots on goal in the opening period.
Marshall answered back with two goals in the first 6:30 of Period 2 to take a 2-1 lead.
Luverne senior Jack Schlosser evened the score at 2 with a power play goal with the assist going to Kroski.
Luverne and Marshall had opportunities in the second period, but Arends and Maurice would keep the game knotted at 2-2 after two periods.
Luverne had the 11-10 advantage on shots on goal in the second period.
Owen Sudenga took a feed from Brock Behrend to break the tie and give the Cardinals a 3-2 lead with 4:30 remaining in the final period.
Kroski added an unassisted goal a little over a minute later to secure the win for the Cardinals 4-2.
Luverne had a 10-8 advantage in shots on goal in the final period. Arends finished with a solid 28 saves in the game.
Luverne 6, Morris Benson Area 3
Luverne hosted Morris Benson Area Saturday for an afternoon matinee at the Blue Mound Ice Arena.
The Cardinals were seeking to avenge last week’s overtime heartbreaking loss, and they did just that.
Sophomore Patrick Kroski got the Cardinals on the board at 10:01 of Period 1 with an unassisted goal to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
It was Kroski again with just 14 seconds left in the period with assists going to Elliot Domagala and Ethan Langseth.
Luverne took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. Shots on goal for the period were 15-9 in favor of Luverne.
The second period started just like the first did. Kroski got his third goal of the game on assists from Domagala and Brady Bork.
MBA responded just 21 seconds later to cut Luverne’s lead to 3-1.
Blaik Bork would make it a three-goal lead for the Cardinals with a little over six minutes left in the period. Owen Sudenga and Brock Behrend assisted on Bork’s goal.
MBA scored again in Period 2 to cut Luverne’s lead to 4-2 after two periods of play at the Blue Mound Ice Arena.
Luverne took advantage of an MBA penalty and scored on a power-play goal by Owen Sudenga with assists going to Behrend and Henry Hartquist to make it 5-2.
MBA made it 5-3 with 5:19 left in the final period. Kroski got his fourth goal of the game just 18 seconds later with assists going to Brady Bork and Domagala to secure the 6-3 victory.
Arends was again solid in the net, making 31 saves in the game.
Luverne 5, Windom 2
Luverne traveled to Windom Monday, Feb. 7, for a big Section 3 game that will have a big impact on seedings in a couple of weeks when section play gets going.
The Cardinals wasted no time getting on the board. Owen Sudenga forced an offensive zone turnover by Windom, slid it over to Brock Behrend, and Luverne was up 1-0 just 22 seconds into the game.
Windom responded a couple minutes later to tie things up at 1-1.
Caleb Hein blasted a slap shot from the blue line to give the Cardinals the lead back 2-1. Assisting on Hein’s goal were Patrick Kroski and Elliot Domagala.
Windom got an equalizer midway through Period 1 to tie the game at 2-2.
After a lot of back-and-forth play the rest of the period, the score stayed at 2-2 heading into the first intermission.
Shots on goal were 19-10 in favor of Windom. Luverne goalie Tyler Arends made 17 saves to keep his team in the game.
Windom and Luverne went scoreless in the second period, and the Cardinals were able to dodge three Windom power play attempts to keep the game at 2-2 heading into the final period.
Shots on goal for Period 2 were 14-9 in favor of Windom.
The Cardinals came alive in the third period.
Just over a minute into the period, Kroski broke the tie on an assist going to Brady Bork to make the score 3-2.
Luverne padded the lead when junior Brock Behrend took a faceoff and split the D on a breakaway to give the Cardinals a big two-goal lead five minutes in.
Three minutes later it was Elliot Domagala taking advantage of a Windom penalty and scoring on the power play with Kroski and Owen Sudenga assisting on the goal.
With a 5-2 lead midway through Period 3, the Cardinals got themselves in some penalty trouble and let Windom pound shot after shot on Arends, but he stood tall.
Arends finished the period with 17 saves and an impressive 46 saves in the game.
Windom outshot Luverne 17-12 in Period 3 and 50-26 for the game.