Halsey’s third period goal gives Austin a win over Lourdes
Published 10:43 pm Monday, December 11, 2017
- Austin’s Jake Halsey (17) celebrates his game-winning goal against Rochester Lourdes in Riverside Arena Monday. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
The Austin boys hockey team couldn’t have pictured a worse start than it had against Rochester Lourdes, but it was able to come up with a picture perfect finish. The Packers bounced back from an early letdown as they beat Rochester Lourdes 3-2 in Riverside Arena Monday night.
Austin’s win was clinched when Jake Halsey scored his second goal of the night when he tipped in a slap shot by Tyler Hoban with 4:10 left in the game.
Bryar Flanders pushes a shot past Rochester Lourdes goalie Zach Walston for a first period goal for the Packers Monday. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
“It feels good to beat Lourdes in my senior year,” Halsey said. “They’re a pretty good team. I was extremely happy afterwards, especially hearing that horn go off and seeing everybody go crazy. It was the biggest goal of my career.”
Lourdes (3-4 overall) scored two goals in less than two minutes to start the game as it went up 2-0, but that was all of the damage the Eagles would do against Noah Bawek, who finished with 39 saves. Bawek and the Packers (2-3 overall) extinguished all five Lourdes power plays to get the win.
The second goal for Lourdes took a tough bounce off the ice for Bawek and that is the type of bad break that may have put him in a bad mood in the past. This time he shook it off and stayed locked in.
Austin’s AJ Mueller tries to stop Paul Hofbauer of Rochester Lourdes on a breakaway in Riverside Arena Monday. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
“Every game that I’ve gotten mad during the last few years haven’t ended well so I just kept my cool,” Bawek said. “I was mad at the moment, but I wasn’t too mad. It took a lot of focus [to hang in] and I was in a zone.”
Halsey brought the Packers within 2-1 with a first period slap shot and Bryar Flanders scored a put-back goal to tie the game at 2-2 with 5:45 left in the first period.
The Packers had lost two straight games where they had scored a total of just two goals. Head coach Jason Merritt was glad to see his team find the net Monday.
“We just had to keep going and keep competing and hopefully good things would happen,” Merritt said. “Any win’s a good win, but right now we’re having trouble scoring and they’re a good, competitive team and for us to get a win like this is big.”
Austin’s Kaleb Ree eyes up the puck for the Packers against Rochester Lourdes in Riverside Arena Monday. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
SCORING SUMMARY
Lourdes 2 0 0 — 2
Austin 2 0 1 — 3
First period
(R) Luke Newman (Paul Hofbauer, Coleton Swee) :50
(R) Weston Adamson 1:13
(A) Jake Halsey 7:58
(A) Bryar Flanders (Jack Dankert, Dylan Svoboda) 11:15
Second period
No scoring
Third period
(A) Halsey (AJ Mueller, Tyler Hoban) 12:50
Shots: Austin — 31; Lourdes — 41
Power plays: Austin — 0-for-3; Lourdes — 0-for-5