If Tiger girls hockey coach Keith Revels is seen walking down the street scratching his head and talking to himself, it is likely because he is trying to figure out why his team has so much trouble playing non-conference competition.
Last week the Tigers played one game in the Missota Conference, beating up on New Prague 10-1. Earlier in the week, they had to work overtime to score a come-from-behind, 4-3, non-league win over Rosemount, a team that has one win in 11 games this season.
The numbers tell the story of Revels' concern. In the Missota his team has won all six of its games by a cumulative score of 41-3. In three out-of-conference tilts, however, they are 1-2 and have been outscored 12-9.
Two of the non-conference games, the win over Rosemount and a 4-2 loss to Burnsville, came against teams with a combined 2-18 record.
"I'm not quite sure what happened in the Rosemount game," Revels said. "We controlled play in the first period. They only got one shot in goal.... Our defensive zone play went south after that and we got sloppy in our own end.
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"I guess the positive thing is that we pulled out another win when we didn't play our A game, but that's not how we want things to continue."
Stefanie Schmitz scored on a breakaway and Kallie Flor (from Amy Gilbertson) notched her 10th goal of the season in the opening period as the Tigers outshot the Irish 6-1.
But the second period was another story, with the Irish scoring three times, including a pair of goals by Ashley Kaye.
Flor (from Gilbertson and Jessye Stock) gave the visitors hope with her second goal of the night at 5:39 of the final period to force an eight-minute, sudden-death extra session.
Kendahl Link got the only shot in overtime, drilling the puck from near the blue line through a couple of screened forwards at 2:37. Flor and Victoria Schuetzle assisted on the game-winner.
The Tigers outshot the Irish 24-20 in the contest.
"We may not be done experimenting with different lines," Revels said. "Our top line isn't clicking like it has and we may need to break it up and get some better balance."
Farmington 2-0-1-1 4
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Rosemount 0-3-0-0 3
1st period: Far-Schmitz (unassisted), 9:09; Far-Flor (Gilbertson), 12:58
2nd period: Ros-A. Kaye (Austin, Burkhardt), 4:15 pp; Ros-Tonkin (Austin), 6:36; Ros-A. Kaye (Austin, Tonkin), 12:05
3rd period: Far-Flor (Stock, Gilbertson), 5:39
Overtime: Link (Flor, Schuetzle), 2:37
Shots on goal
Farmington 6-8-9-1 24
Rosemount 1-14-5-0 20
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Vs New Prague
As expected, the Tigers made short work of New Prague Thursday and as promised, Revels started toying with lines to see if he could come up with better offensive production.
"We're continuing to look for the right combinations up front," he said. "It's not something that I would like to be doing at this time of the season but it has to be done."
Farmington used its entire traveling roster starting late in the first period and the offense did not have any problems producing opportunities. The Tigers finished with 46 shots on net and scored in double digits for the first time this season.
All in all, 13 players got into the scoring column for the winners. Eight Tigers registered goals, including two apiece by Missy Bright and Gilbertson. Stock and Schuetzle each contributed a pair of assists. Rachel Ripley scored her first varsity goal.
"It's really hard to tell against a team like New Prague," Revels said. "One thing we did very well is stopping Jenna Kirkpatrick. She is the second-leading scorer in the conference and although she finally scored their only goal late in the game we did a good job of keeping her away from the net."
The Tigers host their annual Louie Schmitz Holiday Classic Thursday through Saturday at Civic Arena. The four-team, round robin affair features Farmington, St. Paul United and Prior Lake.
Farmington 4-3-4 10
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New Prague 0-0-1 1
1st period: Far-Bright (E. Johnson), 2:59; Far-Nunn (Walsh, Bright), 6:02; Far-Gilbertson (Stock), 7:27; Far-Schmitz (K. Johnson), 11:23
2nd period: Far-Ripley (Gilbertson), 4:19; Far-E. Johnson (unassisted); 9:52; Far-Gilbertson (Stock, Nunn), 14:41
3rd period: Far-Bright (Schuetzle), 2:50; Far-Zalesky (E. Johnson), 7:30; NP-Kirkpatrick (Merhar), 12:45; Far-Flor (Schuetzle), 13:46
