An inspired effort by No. 5 seed Owatonna forced the game into overtime, but the end result was a 2-1 victory for the No. 1 seed Northfield Raiders before a standing room only crowd at the Northfield Ice Arena on Saturday, Feb. 10 in the semifinals of the 2024 MSHSL Section 1AA tournament.
The Raiders will now advance to play in the Section 1AA title game against No. 2 Lakeville South, who beat Farmington 3-0. The title game will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the Four Seasons Ice Arena in Owatonna.
In regular season action this season, Northfield scored a 6-2, 7-3 series sweep in its games against Owatonna, but the Huskies were prepared for the challenge, as they controlled the game’s tempo in the first period and managed to outshoot NHS by a 14-8 margin.
The Raiders were hampered by two penalty calls in the first period, but they managed to kill both penalties and finished the day with a 3-of-3 effort on the penalty kill. In the second period, Owatonna broke the game’s scoring drought with an even strength goal at 11:55 by Averi Vetsch that included assists from Zoie Roush and Morgan Macy.
Owatonna was definitely in the hunt for the upset as they continued to keep Northfield off the scoreboard with outstanding play in the nets by goalie Leah Spencer, who ended the game with 39 saves.
Northfield was able to turn the tide on the offense in the second half of the game as the Raiders outshot the Huskies 12-8 in the second period and then 15-9 in the third period. Still, Owatonna’s defensive effort forced Northfield to finally pull its goalie Macy Mueller with about 1:20 left in regulation.
The tactic paid dividends as the Raiders’ Mia Miller scored at the 16:00 mark of the third period with even-strength assists from Emma Peroutka and Emerson Garlie to knot the score at 1-1 and force overtime.
Northfield was able to score the victory thanks to the work of its special teams. At the 4:36 mark of the OT session, Owatonna was called for a high stick to Northfield Grace McCoshen. With the extra player advantage, Northfield coined the game winner at 5:10 with a play that was started on a shot out front by Ayla Puppe.
On the rebound, Emerson Garlie kept the puck in play thus setting up the opportunity for Miller to tip in the puck for the deciding score.
“Ayla (Puppe) just shot it from up top and then Emerson (Garlie) tipped it and it was sitting right under the goalie and I was just there to push it in,” Miller said.
Northfield coach Paige Haley added, “ The desperation was there and they knew they had to crash and put everything on net to have an opportunity to get a goal there,”
Miller went on to talk about her squad’s recovery in the second half against Owatonna, “It’s now or never, we changed our forecheck and did everything to push on them and give us the best chance to get a goal.”
On the day, Northfield outshot the Huskies 41-33, as the Raiders improved to 26-1 on the season. Mueller, who leads the state this year with 26 victories, had 32 saves in the game for Northfield. Owatonna finishes its 2023-24 season with a 14-12 overall record.
Miller provided her insight into how the battle against Owatonna will help Northfield as it advances in the playoffs.
“This will help us a lot since we know we can battle through adversity. We know we have some things to work on this week and I think this type of game will help us for whoever we play next,” Miller said.
Haley also tipped her hat to the challenge provided by the Huskies in the semifinal showdown.
“I had a feeling it was going to be like this. Anytime you play a team for the third time is hard and being in a playoff situation is hard, I didn’t know what to expect but we definitely got Owatonna’s best version today, so I give a lot of credit to them.”
She concluded, “I thought our team played very well defensively today and hopefully we will carry that over to the section finals.”
Puppe continues to move up in the scoring charts this season with 59 goals, 48 assists and 107 points. Miller has 21 goals, 45 assists and 46 points, while Garlie has 29 goals, 29 assists and 58 points in 2023-24.
Northfield vs Austin
The Northfield High School girls hockey team lived up to its No. 1 seed status in the first round of the MSHSL Section 1AA tournament, as the Raiders rolled to an 18-0 victory over Austin on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at the Northfield Ice Arena.
The Raiders established themselves quickly in the contest with Emily Beaham scoring the game’s first goal at 2:26 of the first period with an assist from Taylor Krohn.
Northfield wasted little time as it went on a scoring binge that saw the Raiders finish the first period with a 12-0 lead. The scoring was fast and furious as Krohn scored the team’s second goal at 2:55 followed by Puppe’s goal at 3:05. Peroutka joined in with a goal at 3:47 before Krohn posted her second goal of the evening at 4:09.
The offense continued with addition first period goals by Lillian Jindra, Garlie, Isabelle Paulson, Miller and second goals by Peroutka and Beaham before the first period horn sounded.
In the first period, Northfield outshot Austin 32-2 and then finished the contest with a 58-6 shot margin. NHS goalie Mueller posted six saves in the game as she recorded her 10th shutout and 25th victory of the season.
In the second period, Northfield added three more goals by Olivia Rasmussen, Ashlyn Paukert and Abbi Sparks (a senior who scored her first varsity goal in the game). In the final period of play, Northfield’s Peroutka gained her hat trick with a goal at 2:31 while Rasmussen scored again at 11:54 and Grace McCoshen completed the game with a the Raiders’ final goal at 12:42.
“We’ve been really emphasizing d-zone coverage and penalty kill. Those were two areas that were exposed in our loss to Dodge County. We’ve been attacking those two areas and “we need to keep our defensive game tight,” Haley said about her squad’s preparation for the section tournament.
In other first round games of the section tournament, Owatonna defeated Mankato East 5-4, Lakeville South defeated Rochester Century/John Marshall 12-0 and Farmington edged Rochester Mayo 3-0.
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