Boys hockey: Lancers end Austin’s season
Published 10:59 pm Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Austin’s Jace Greenman keeps his eyes on the puck after squeezing through a check during the first period against La Crescent in a Section 1A Tournament match-up Tuesday night in Riverside Arena. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
The No. 8 seeded Austin boys hockey team had its season come to an end in a 4-2 loss to No. 9 seeded La Crescent, despite out-shooting the Lancers 32-16 in a Section 1A tournament opener in Riverside Arena Tuesday.
The Packers (7-15-1 overall) pulled to within 3-2 when Jack Dankert scored on a rebound with 9:51 left in the game, but Austin couldn’t find the equalizer goal. La Crescent (17-6-1 overall) put the game away on an empty netter with 29 seconds left in the game.
Austin’s Ryan McCormack puts a shot on goal in the first period against La Crescent in a Section 1A Tournament game Tuesday night at Riverside Arena. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
“That’s what we wanted to do was outshoot them two to one, but I still felt we could’ve had more shots,” Austin head coach Erik LaRock said. “We didn’t really get any nice bounces. They’re goalie made a lot of nice saves, but he also gave up a lot of rebounds that we weren’t able to get. We were out of position tonight.”
Austin took an early lead when Dylan Svoboda scored a put-back goal to put the Packers up 1-0 in the first period, but the Lancers tied things up with a quick power play goal. Austin sophomore Noah Bawek stopped 13 of the 15 shots he saw in net.
The Packers will graduate six seniors from this year’s team.
“I’m really proud of our seniors,” LaRock said. “I thought they helped us take a step in the right direction and they helped us climb this hill. We’ve got a lot of young guys with potential and hopefully they work hard in the offseason and it should be a fun year next year.”
SCORING SUMMARY
La Crescent 1 1 2 — 4
Austin 1 0 1 — 2
First period
(A) Dylan Svoboda (Jason Stoulil) 5:15
Austin’s Alex Ciola looks back for the puck in a crowd against La Crescent in the first half of their Section 1A game Tuesday night in Riverside Arena. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
(L) Laudon Poellinger (power play) (Zach Hanno) 6:10
Second period
(L) Carter Schmitz (Hanno, Poellinger) 2:56
Third period
(L) Schmitz (Hanno, Poellinger) 4:07
(A) Jack Dankert (Stoulil) 7:09
(L) Hanno 16:31
Shots: Austin — 32; La Crescent — 16
Power plays: Austin — 0-for-1; La Crescent — 1-for-1
