To cap a stellar regular season schedule, the Class AA No. 5 ranked Northfield High School girls hockey team (24-1-0, 13-0-0) captured an 8-0 win over Mankato West on Thursday, Feb. 1 at the Northfield Ice Arena.
The Raiders will now enter the MSHSL Section 1AA tournament on Wednesday, Feb. 7 as the No. 1 seed. Northfield will host No. 8 seed Austin at 7 p.m. Feb. 7. In the other first round Section 1AA games, No. 4 Mankato East will host No. 5 Owatonna, No. 2 Lakeville South will host No. 7 Rochester Century/Marshall and No. 3 Farmington will host No. 6 Rochester Mayo.
Second round games in the section tournament will take place on Saturday, Feb. 10 with the Section 1AA title game being played at Owatonna’s Steele County Four Seasons Arena on Thursday, Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m. Last year, Northfield advanced to the Section 1AA title game before losing a 5-3 match against Lakeville North.
In the victory over Mankato West, the Raiders were impressive on both ends of the ice, as they outshot the Scarlets 61-5. Emerson Garlie opened the game’s scoring with a goal at 2:11 of the first period, which was followed by a goal at 2:54 by Lillian Jindra. Grace McCoshen and Ayla Puppe also added first period goals before Garlie finished the period with her second goal of the evening at 6:52.
In the second period, Northfield finalized the scoresheet with a pair of goals by Emma Peroutka and one by Isabelle Stephes, which made the final 8-0. Macy Mueller had five saves in the game and gained her ninth shutout of the season. Mueller currently leads the state with 24 wins this season in goal.
Puppe finished the game with a team-high four points (1g/4a), while McCoshen had three points (1g/2a) against West.
Earlier in the week, Northfield suffered its first loss of the 2023-24 campaign with a 4-2 loss on Tuesday, Jan. 30 at non-conference rival Dodge County, which is currently ranked #3 in the state’s Class A poll.
Dodge Country owned a 42-15 edge in shots in the game and was strong on the special teams with a 2-of-4 rate on the power play and a 2-of-2 night on the penalty kill.
The Wildcats opened the scoring in the first period with a power play goal by McKenna LeFleur at 2:53. Dodge County added its second goal at 2:28 on the power play by Mollie Koch before Nora Carstensen etched the game winner at 10:06 of the second to make it 3-0.
McCoshen managed to break the shutout at 12:31 of the second period with an unassisted goal and Puppe closed the margin to 3-2 with her goal at 5:19 of the third period. Dodge County then finished the evening with a goal by Carstensen at 8:42 of the third. Mueller was the goal of record for Northfield with 38 saves in the game.
In the game against Mankato West, Puppe broke the 100-point plateau as she now has 102 points this season to lead the state. She also leads all Minnesota players with 58 goals and is tied for first along with teammate Mia Miller at 44 assists apiece. Miller also ranks third in the state with 62 points and Garlie is ninth with 54 points and 12th in the state with 28 goals.
McCoshen is 10th in the state with 27 assists this season and Garlie is 13th with 26 assists.
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