By John RittenhouseThe Luverne boys’ hockey team dropped its first game of the season at All Seasons Arena in Mankato Monday.Playing Mankato East in what was the first game of the year for both teams, the Cardinals yielded eight goals in the second and third periods of what ended as a 9-2 setback.East senior Logan Wenzel did most of the damage for the hosts.Wenzel, who scored four goals for the Cougars, put pucks in the net during all three periods of the game.Wenzel opened the scoring at the 10:44 mark of the first period.The score remained 1-0 until ME’s Derek and Don Hager found the net in the first 7:14 of the second period to make it a 3-0 game.Jordan Siebenahler scored Luverne’s first goal of the season with an unassisted effort at the 8:00 mark of the second period to make it a 3-1 difference before Neil Viola and Wenzel scored goals 30 seconds apart late in the stanza to give the Cougars a 5-1 advantage.East’s Ross Grant opened the scoring eight seconds into the third period before Luverne countered with a power-play goal by Andre Landtwing to make it a 6-2 game with 14:37 left to play.Tyler Elbers set up Landtwing’s score.Wenzel answered for East by scoring power-play goals at the 13:39 and 6:32 marks of the third period. Ryan Riebel scored the final goal of the game for East with 6:11 left to play.The hosts outshot the Cardinals 21-14 in the game.Patrick Bennett made 2 goals in net for the 0-1 Cardinals, who host Minneapolis Edison Saturday before traveling to Sleepy Eye Tuesday.
