Luverne senior center Tyler Elbers lifts a back-handed shot at Windom goalie Drew Hage during Thursday’s Southwest Conference hockey game at the Blue Mound Ice Arena. Elbers netted Luverne’s lone goal in a 5-1 loss to the Eagles. By John RittenhouseThe Luverne boys’ hockey team ended the 2003-04 season by playing three games in a six-day span.Windom topped the Cardinals by five goals during Luverne’s home finale Thursday, but LHS capped a 4-19 regular season by posting a two-goal win over Minneapolis South in Minneapolis Friday.Luverne, the 10th seed for the Section 1A Tournament, bowed out of the event with a four-goal loss to No. 7 Dodge County in an opening-round game played in Kasson Monday.The Cardinals end the campaign with a 4-20 record.DC 6, Luverne 2A promising start to the game was followed by a disappointing finish when the Cardinals met DC in section play in Kasson Monday.Luverne scored the game’s first goal and the score was knotted at two 5:20 into contest. DC, however, outscored LHS 4-0 the rest of the night to eliminate the Cardinals from the tournament.Senior Tyler Elbers gave the Cards a 1-0 lead two minutes into the contest after being set up by Dan Schneekloth.DC countered with goals from Erik LaRock 53 seconds apart to take a 2-1 lead as the period progressed, but Landtwing found the net at the 11:40 mark of the stanza to tie the game at two.Elbers set up Landtwing’s tally, which proved to be the last goal LHS would score this season.LaRock scored his third goal of the game with 6:01 left in the first period before finding the net again at the 12:35 mark of the second period to make it 4-2.DC’s Zach Orth scored a short-handed goal with 15 seconds left in the second period to make it a three-goal difference (5-2) before capping the scoring with 7:39 remaining in the third period.Luverne outshot DC 28-25 in the game. Brad Van Santen played the first two periods in goal for the Cards, stopping 18 of 23 shots. Patrick Bennett made one save in two attempts during the third period.Luverne 2, South 0Elbers netted a pair of goals and Van Santen recorded a shutout in net to help the Cardinals snap a seven-game losing skid in Minneapolis Friday.Elbers scored goals in the first and second periods to set the pace offensively and Van Santen stopped all 35 shots he faced in goal to preserve the win for LHS.The victory capped a 4-19 regular season for the Cards.Landtwing, who received assists for both of Luverne’s goals, set up Elbers’ first counter 4:39 into the game.The Landtwing-Elbers connection clicked for a power-play goal 4:07 into the second period to cap the scoring.South outshot the Cardinals 35-23 in the game.Windom 5, Luverne 1The Cardinals finished Southwest Conference play with a 2-6 record after taking a four-goal setback from the Eagles in Luverne Thursday.Luverne outshot Windom 34-32 in the tilt, but the Eagles scored at least one goal in every period in front of Luverne’s Parents’ Night crowd in the Blue Mound Ice Arena.Marcus Schultz and Cody Lewis led Windom to victory by netting two goals each.Schultz gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead at the 13:56 mark of the first period before Lewis scored at 12:17 of the second period to make it 2-0.Luverne’s Elbers cut Windom’s lead in half (2-1) with an unassisted, break-away goal at the 10:18 mark of the second period.Windom, however, received goals from Lee Fast and Lewis before the second period was complete to make the difference 4-1.Schultz capped the scoring by netting a goal at the 13:38 mark of the third period.Bennett made 27 saves in net for the Cards.
