The Austin girls hockey team scored three goals in the last four minutes to pull off a 6-5 win at Mankato East in its season finale Thursday.

Vanessa Talamantes scored to tie the game with 3:30 left and Kirsten Stanek put the Packers (11-12-2 overall, 7-8-1 Big Nine) up for good with 29 seconds left in the game.

“I told the girls before the third period (when Austin trailed 4-3) that we were going to win,” Austin head coach Denny Bray said. “We had a great comeback.”

The Cougars (7-14 overall) stormed out to a 3-0 lead in the first seven minutes of the first period, but Austin didn’t give in.

“We struggled with the puck in the defensive zone early on,” Bray said. “We weren’t losing our composure. We kept playing strong and working hard.”

The Packers will open the Section 1A tournament Friday, Feb. 12.

Austin 1 2 3 — 6

Mankato East 3 1 1 — 5

First period

(ME) 2:03 Savannah Quandt (Rebekah Kolstad)

(ME) 5:14 Quandt (Kolstad)

(ME) 6:33 Katy Snyder (Maddie McCargar, Quandt)

(A) 16:48 Kirsten Stanek (Kennedy Thompson, Ashley Arhart)

Second period

(MW) 7:14 Quandt (Sarah Biesterveld) (PP)

(A) 11:52 Abby Gallaher (Carley Grunewald, Alex Larson)

Third period

(ME) 3:33 Madie McCargar (Quandt)

(A) 13:07 Ashley Arhart (Alex Larson) (PP)

(A) 13:32 Vanessa Talamantes (Grunewald)

(A) 16:31 Stanek (Thompson, Arhart)

Shots on goal: Austin — 42; Mankato East — 35