After a 0-0 standoff in the first period, the No. 8 ranked Northfield High School boys hockey team found its offensive groove in the final two periods of its MSHSL Section 1A semifinal game to gain an 8-1 victory over Albert Lea at the Rochester Recreation Center in Rochester, Minn.
The Raiders (21-4-2) will now advance to the Section 1A title game, which will find No. 1 seed Northfield back at the Rochester Recreation Center for a match-up against #2 seed Dodge County (19-7-1) on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m.
The winner of this game will earn a trip to the upcoming MSHSL Class A tournament, which will be held at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on March 6-9. The 2024 Big 9 Conference champions, Northfield advanced to the state tournament in 2023 and also played at the state tournament in 2017.
In the game against Albert Lea, Northfield did not score in the opening period but it controlled the contest offensively as it outshot the Tigers 14-1. In the second period, Northfield finally broke the seal as Jake Geiger scored at 13:32 with assists from Kam Kaiser and Cayden Monson.
Monson then added the eventual game winner with his goal at 15:51 with help from Geiger on the assist. Just :20 later, Kaiser finished the second period scoring with his goal at 16:11 as Ben Geiger and Monson added helpers on the play.
In the third period, Northfield turned up the heat with five more goals to ice the decision. Monson opened the period with goal at 2:10 and then earned his hat trick with his third goal at 7:06. Of note, Monson finished the game with three goals, two assists and five points.
Christian Whiteman pushed the Raider lead to 6-0 at 8:14 with his even strength goal before Jacob Kolker scored Albert’s lone goal of the evening at 8:56. To wrap up the night offensively, Northfield’s Andrew Winter scored at 9:03 of the third followed by a power play goal by Griffin Kennelly at 12:30 that made the final 8-1.
On the evening, Northfield outshot Albert Lea 36-14 and were 1-of-3 on the power play. The Raiders also were effective in staying out of the penalty box and finished with a 1-of-1 rate on the penalty kill. Max Frank earned his 13th win of the season with 13 saves in the game.
As the Raiders head into the Section final, Kaiser currently ranks 10th in the state with 36 goals and Geiger ranks 13th in the state with 38 assists and 15th in the state with 64 points. Frank owns a 1.61 goals against average this season, which ranks fourth among Minnesota high school goalies.
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