The Lourdes Eagles (14-3-1) put a little more importance into Thursday night’s boy’s hockey game at Riverside Arena than the Austin Packers.

Friday, February 04, 2000

The Lourdes Eagles (14-3-1) put a little more importance into Thursday night’s boy’s hockey game at Riverside Arena than the Austin Packers. The Eagles, ranked No. 7 in Class A in the latest Associated Press Hockey poll, soared to a 4-0 lead after one period on their way to an 8-2 win over the Packers.

Lourdes beat the Packers in every phase of the game. They skated well, passed the puck well, and played good positional hockey.

"We were chasing them all night long," Austin coach Denny Laumeyer said.

The No. 1 star of the game was Lourdes’ 6-foot, 2-inch, 205-pound sophomore defenseman Mark Stuart. He came into the game as the Eagles top-scorer – 14 goals, 13 assists. He left by adding five points to that total on two goals and three assists.

"I knew he was a good player coming into the year," Lourdes coach Jay Ness said, " but I didn’t know he would be that good of a scorer. He had a monster game tonight. I’ve known the Stuart family for a long time. He has three brothers that have played hockey for us."

"The goals are just coming this year," the modest Stuart said. "I’ve been kind of lucky."

Stuart got things going in the first minute of play with a shot from the blue line that deflected of Austin goalie Steve Schminke’s stick into the top shelf of the goal. Schminke was in goal for Austin for only the second time this season. Regular goaltender Kyle Olson was out due to a groin pull.

"Schminke had a tough assignment," Laumeyer said. "Practice is a lot different from a regular game."

Also having a tough night for Austin was defenseman Jeremy Mason. Before the initial goal, he went sliding out to block a shot. The puck hit him in the face mask which crunched into his jaw causing a cut that needed several stitches to sew up. Mason was back on the ice by the end of the first period only to be struck down again. This time he was involved in a knee to knee collision. He tried to crawl off the ice before the whistle blew but didn’t quite make it.

"I don’t know Mason’s status for next week’s games," Laumeyer said. "He is a tough guy though, coming back after getting stitches, a real hockey player, so I expect he will be back."

Halfway through the first period Lourdes struck for two goals within 20 seconds of each other. They closed out their first period scoring on a power-play goal by Stuart.

The play became a little physical in the second period and even more so in the third. Andy Klapperick scored a goal in each of the periods for Austin. Lourdes more than matched his output with a goal in the second and three more in the third.

Austin (12-5-1, 10-3-1 in the Big Nine) looks to get back on track when it travels to Rochester to play Century next Tuesday before hosting Albert Lea Thursday night.

Lourdes 4 1 3 – 8

Austin 0 1 1 – 2

First Period – 1, Lourdes, Mark Stuart (Nick Meeker) 0.49. 2, Lourdes Sean Brownlow (Charley Schmidt) 8:31. 3, Lourdes, Mike Lawler (Brandon Harrington, Alex Miller) 8:48. 4, Lourdes, Stuart, 13:32 (pp).

Second Period – 5, Lourdes, Brownlow (Stuart) 6:38. 6, Austin, Andy Klapperick (Josh Hansen) 8:09.

Third Period – 7, Lourdes, Kevin Huck (Stuart, Matt Rink) 5:07. 8, Lourdes, Miller (Stuart) 9:56. 9, Austin Klapperick (Brandon Schaefer) 10:09. 10, Lourdes, Nate Strauss (Huck) 12:04.

Goalies – Lourdes, Dan Smith 7-9. Austin, Steve Schminke 26-34.

Shots on Goal – Lourdes 13-9-12 34. Austin 1-5-3 9.