By Jim Rueda
Free Press Sports Editor
MANKATO — A Mankato West girls hockey player scored a hat trick against cross-town rival Mankato East/Loyola Monday and, surprisingly, her name was not Katy Kvasnicka.
The Scarlets shutout their Big Nine Conference opponents 7-0 at All Seasons Arena and were led by freshman Hanna Rehome’s three goals and two assists. Kvasnicka was not exactly a no-show herself, adding two more goals.
Rehome skated on a newly-configured line with Justine Scheller and Amanda Probach. They were first paired two games ago and head coach Cara Samuelson likes what she has seen so far.
“I felt it was very important to try to get some scoring from somewhere besides Katy’s line,” Samuelson said. “From here on out the teams we play are going to be paying a lot of attention to Katy so we felt we had to get some offensive punch from somewhere else.”
The big move was taking Probach off Kvasnicka’s line and putting here with Rehome and Scheller.
“Amanda is so aggressive we just felt that was the move to make,” Samuelson said. “She loves to forecheck and be the first one to stick her nose in there; that makes everybody around her better.”
Rehome opened the game’s scoring, taking a pass from Probach at the 3:11 mark and sliding the puck through traffic into the net. The 1-0 lead held up until the first break.
It was Rehome again to start the second. She planted herself just outside the crease, took a pass from Scheller from behind the net and squeezed the puck in between goaltender Melany Anderson and the post.
West put the game away soon after, getting two goals from Kvasnicka at 11:42 and 15:55 to make it 4-0 after two periods. Probach and Looft scored the first two goals of the third period before Rehome completed her hat trick at the 11:50 mark.
“It was fun,” Rehome said of her first career hat trick. “I was doing a lot of passing, too, but my linemates did a great job of getting me the puck. This is definitely a big confidence booster for me.”
East/Loyola coach Nate Fuller said his team played well at times and not so well at others.
“We’d have stretches where we’d get some good pressure on their net, but other times we’d just lose the puck with nobody on us or give up the odd-man rush,” he said. “We had opportunities, we just couldn’t capitalize.”
The Cougars’ Anderson turned in a solid game, making 43 saves. Her counterpart, Therese Coughlan, stopped all 15 East/Loyola shots.
“Therese is pretty tough to score on,” Samuelson said. “She’s moves well and she doesn’t give you much of the net to look at.”
