The Austin girls hockey team couldn’t hold off a late Cougars rally in a 3-2 loss at Mankato East Tuesday.

The Packers (3-6 overall, 0-5 Big Nine) took a 1-0 lead in the first period when Carley Grunewald scored on a back-door pass from Abby Gallaher and they held that lead through two periods.

Mankato East (8-0-1 overall, 4-0 Big Nine) finally took over when eighth grader Rebekah Kolstad scored two goals and dished out an assist in a seven-minute stretch in the third period to make it 3-1.

Austin had five penalties in the loss.

“We played great in the first period and the second period was back and forth,” Austin head coach Denny Bray said. “The penalties tired us out a little in the third.”

SCORING SUMMARY

Austin 1 0 1 — 2

East 0 0 3 — 3

First period

(A) Carley Grunewald (Abby Gallaher) 10:04

Second period

No scoring

Third period

(ME) Rebekah Kolstad (powerplay) (Maddie McCargar, Savannah Quandt) 6:32

(ME) McCarger (Kolstad) 7:27

(ME) Kostad 13:04

(A) Ashley Arhart (Alex Larson) 15:17

Shots: Austin — 24; Mankato East — 31