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Improved East/Loyola falls to Hutchinson 5-2
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Mankato East/Loyola’s Rebekah Kolstad (middle) tries to beat two Hutchinson players to the puck during Thursday’s nonconference girls hockey game at All Seasons Arena. Pat Christman
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Biesterveld, Quandt score for Cougars
MANKATO — Mankato East/Loyola girls hockey coach Nate Fuller has learned that he needs to measure progress in small steps.
Despite dropping a 5-2 decision to Hutchinson at All Seasons Arena, he believes his Cougars took one of those steps Thursday night in the nonconference game.
East/Loyola lost twice to Hutchinson last year by a combined score of 20-1. To stay within two goals of the defending Section 2A champion Tigers for most of Thursday’s game is a noteworthy accomplishment.
“We’re not hanging our heads, we know what happened last year,” Fuller said afterward. “This was a much improved performance by our team. We weren’t intimidated, we skated hard, it was a pretty good game for us.”
At the outset, it appeared Hutchinson was again going to win handily. The Tigers controlled the first period, outshooting East/Loyola 15-5, and took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
The Cougars evened things up in the final two periods, however, outshooting Hutchinson 24-21 over the last 34 minutes.
“We may have been a little tentative to start the game,” Fuller said. “But Sarah (Biesterveld) came out and scored early for us in the second period and that seemed to give us a boost of confidence.”
Biesterveld closed the gap to 2-1 at the 4:22 mark of the middle period when she skated down the slot, angled over to the right circle and lifted one past goaltender Mary Cummins’ glove side. Hutchinson answered just 18 seconds later and then upped the lead to 4-1 with 10 minutes left in the session.
Before the period could expire, East/Loyola’s Savannah Quandt converted from almost the exact same spot as Biesterveld. The 4-2 score held up through the break and stayed the same until the Tigers’ Sara Carlson tallied her second goal of the game to cap the scoring at the 11:58 mark.
Biesterveld said she wasn’t surprised her team was able to compete with the Tigers Thursday.
“I could see from the first day of practice that we were going to be a better team,” she said. “We were a lot sharper on our drills, we were faster, we were skating with more confidence. We’re not the young team we were last season.”
Sophomore Melany Anderson played a solid game in goal for East/Loyola, stopping 31 of 36 shots. The gap between the teams would have been larger if not for some point-blank, 1-on-none saves by the goaltender.
Hailey Colbrunn assisted on both goals for the Cougars. Each team took three minor penalties.
East/Loyola (0-2) is off until Tuesday when it plays another nonconference game at Waseca.
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