Girls hockey team ramping up its play
Kyle Finn refers to the last couple weeks of the girls hockey regular season as “dress rehearsal” for the playoffs.
Rosemount’s game against Metro-South on Jan. 27 presented with Irish with a situation they could see in the postseason – controlling the puck much of the game but not leading thanks to stout goaltending by Metro-South sophomore Millie Farrington.
The game turned, as playoff games sometimes do, on a key contribution from a role player. Junior forward Claire Hendrikson, who had scored only one goal all season, got both Rosemount goals in the Irish’s 2-1 victory at Rosemount Arena. Hendrikson scored the eventual winning goal at 5 minutes, 42 seconds of the third period.
“The girls handled it really well,” said Finn, who is Rosemount’s co-head coach with Jennifer Williams. “They didn’t lose positivity for one second.”
Next week the Irish will begin the postseason in Section 3AA, where they are defending champions. The section appears especially competitive this year with the addition of Lakeville North, which moves to Section 3AA after winning the Section 1AA title last year.
The Panthers, who entered the week 18-2-1 and tied for first in the South Suburban Conference, are the likely No. 1 seed.
Six of the eight Section 3AA teams started this week with winning records, including Rosemount, Apple Valley, Eastview and Cretin-Derham Hall. Rosemount defeated Cretin-Derham Hall in double overtime in last year’s Section 3AA final and went on to finish sixth in the state tournament. CDH and Apple Valley are 19th and 20th in the Let’s Play Hockey Class AA rankings.
Rosemount (11-9-3) returned a number of players from the state tournament team and has been thinking about the postseason for a while. The Irish are 6-2-1 in their last nine games.
“Around Christmas, we start to talk a little bit more about the playoffs and what playoff hockey looks like versus (concentrating on) purely the skill development and player development,” Finn said. “I think what last year taught our program is you don’t have to have a tremendous record to make a state tournament. What matters most is who’s playing the best hockey at the end of the year. I think we were maybe one game over .500 going into the playoffs last year, but we were playing our absolute best hockey in February and were really tough to beat.”
Against Metro-South, the Irish also got what teams look for in the playoffs – goals from unlikely sources. Hendrickson, a junior, skates on the third line. She has three goals and four points this season.
“This group doesn’t care about points or ice time. All they want to do is continue to play and make a deep run in the playoffs,” Finn said. “(Against Metro-South) it wasn’t our typical leading scorers putting the pucks in the net, and the girls could not have been happier.”
Most of the Irish’s goals have come from four players – junior forwards Analee Holzer, Sophie Stramel and Aubrey Hansen, and senior forward Cece Hanson. Stramel, also a captain, scored the double-overtime goal in the 2023 section final that sent Rosemount to the state tournament. Holzer was a solid contributor last year and now leads the Irish with 20 goals.
“She has the number of goals and assists she has this year because she deserves them,” Finn said of Holzer. “Every coach likes to talk about players who will go to the dirty areas of the ice. She’s exactly that.”
Junior defender Zoe Juncker has a team-high 21 assists. Senior Natalie Kendhammer and junior Avery Miller have shared time in goal; each has two shutouts and a goals-against average barely over 2.00.
Going into this week’s play, Rosemount was tied for third place in the South Suburban Conference with Farmington and Apple Valley. Lakeville North and Lakeville South are battling for the championship.
The Irish play at Prior Lake on Thursday and will end the regular season at home against Farmington at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3.
“We’re going to go into playoff mentality and make sure we’re doing the little things right,” Finn said. “Just like last year, we want to be playing our best hockey in two weeks. I think we’re trending in that direction.”
Girls hockey notes
• Apple Valley will play host to Lakeville North at 7 p.m. Thursday. North started the week tied with Lakeville South for first place in the South Suburban Conference, while Apple Valley was tied for third with Rosemount and Farmington. The Eagles lost to North 5-2 in their earlier regular-season meeting Dec. 16.
• Lakeville South won its 12th game in a row and extended its unbeaten streak to 19 with a 2-1 victory over Apple Valley on Jan. 25. The Eagles’ Makayla Moran scored her 31st goal of the season in the third period to cut the South lead to 2-1, but the Eagles could not come up with the tying goal. Apple Valley is 13-8-2 overall and 9-5-2 in the conference.
• Farmington defeated Eagan 3-1 on Jan. 27, improving to 14-8 overall and 10-6 in the conference. Lexi Giller, Amelia Goblirsch and Morgan Mitchell scored for the Tigers, who appear likely to receive the No. 3 seed in next week’s Section 1AA playoffs (undefeated Northfield and SSC co-leader Lakeville South look set as the top two seeds).
Lily Anderson scored with 1:13 remaining for Eagan (4-19, 1-15).
• Eastview closes its regular-season schedule at Lakeville South at 7 p.m. Thursday. The Lightning (12-11-1, 7-9-1) are sixth in the SSC after defeating Prior Lake 3-1 on Jan. 27. Brynn Dihel scored twice for the Lightning, including the go-ahead goal at 1:08 of the third period. Sari Cords added an empty-net goal late in the third.
• Metro-South, the co-op program that includes seven skaters from Burnsville, moves from Section 3AA to Section 6AA for this year’s playoffs. The top teams in the Phoenix’s new section are Benilde-St. Margaret’s and Edina, currently ranked fifth and sixth in Class AA.
Ella Bond scored and goalie Millie Farrington made 41 saves in a 2-1 loss at Rosemount on Saturday. The Phoenix are 4-18-1 overall and 3-12-1 in the SSC. They play Farmington at Burnsville Ice Center at 7 p.m. Thursday before closing the regular season at Shakopee at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Most Popular
Comments / 0