Packers ice Tigers in OT
Published 10:57 pm Thursday, December 3, 2009
It took all night, but the Austin girls hockey team finally figured out Albert Lea’s goalie.
The Packers pulled off a 1-0 overtime win over the Tigers Thursday in Riverside Arena.
Austin sophomore forward Abby Gallaher took a pass from Kennedy Thompson, took a back-handed shot and drove it in between the legs of Albert Lea’s Sydney Conley to give Austin a win with 5:12 left in the extra session.
Gallaher had won the face-off that set up Thompson’s pass right before the score.
“I saw on the first face-off Abby won it, but she didn’t attack it. I told her to attack the next one and she stayed right with it,” Austin head coach Denny Bray said. “That’s what you’ve got to do.”
The Packers (4-4-1 overall, 2-2 Big Nine) fired 45 shots before they finally got one past Conley, who is a seventh grader.
“We couldn’t quite get close because their defense always closed in on us,” Gallaher said.
The Tigers (2-3 overall) attempted 35 shots, but the Packers defensive front forced most of those shots to come from the outside.
“I told the team I wish I had twenty game pucks tonight, but we gave it to Alix Borland, she played great defense and played one of her better games for us this season,” Bray said. “Alex Larson also played great on defense.”
Austin goalie Audrey DeVries, who had 35 saves, said that the defensive effort took a lot of pressure off her and helped her focus. She was glad that she didn’t lose to a seventh grade goalie.
“Props to her, she’s got some skills and it’s cool to have competition from someone that’s just as good as you at a younger level,” DeVries said. “She’s going to be really good. But there was no way I’m letting a seventh grader beat me. At the beginning of overtime I said someone’s walking away with a shutout and it’s not going to be her.”
The Packers started the overtime period with a power play that gave them momentum to out-shoot Albert Lea 5-0 in the extra session.
Albert Lea 0 0 0 0 — 0
Austin 0 0 0 1 — 1
First period
No scoring
Second period
No scoring
Third period
No scoring
OT
(A) 2:48 Abby Gallaher (Kennedy Thompson)
Power plays: Austin — 0-for-2; Albert Lea — 0-for-4
Shots: Austin — 46; Albert Lea — 35