Park girls hockey: Wolfpack rebounds from loss to Woodbury, beats Raiders

The Park girls hockey team was surprisingly upset by rival Woodbury last week, but managed to turn things around against Cretin-Derham Hall, defeating the Raiders 5-2.

The pair of Suburban East Conference games put a cap on the Wolfpack’s regular season.

Park (13-10-2; 9-8-1 SEC) earned the No. 2 seed in the Section 3AA tournament, held this week. The Wolfpack is set to face seventh-seeded Burnsville (9-11-5) in the opening round on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at Cottage Grove Ice Arena. Park beat the Blaze 4-1 earlier this season.

Ninth-ranked Eagan is the top seed and the favorite to advance to the state tournament. Park has never reached state.

In its final two regular-season games, even though their records suggested a different outcome, Park was unable to defeat Woodbury (3-21-1; 2-16-1 SEC). The Royals’ managed to create a two-game winning streak and also beat East Ridge (5-16-4; 2-13-3 SEC) last week.

Park ended the first period of their home game against Woodbury on Tuesday, Jan. 31 leading 1-0 thanks to a goal from Caitlin Quinn, but a power-play goal from Woodbury’s Mandy McAlpine (assist Kalya Falconer) quickly tied the game in the first minute of the second period.

Then, Allie Thalhuber scored (assists Madison Nelson and Paige Hill) to put Park in the lead once more, until Woodbury’s Sarah Wahlin (assist Caroline Joyce) tied the game midway through the third period.

Park’s aggressive play resulted in 16 shots on goal during the first 17-minute overtime, but Woodbury goalie Kaelan Geisser kept the Royals in the game. Rachel Letsche (assists Kayla Falconer and Livia Twohig) scored two minutes into the second overtime to win the game for Woodbury 3-2.

Following the loss, what started as a close game ended in a solid victory for Park in their game at home against Cretin on Saturday, Feb. 4. While neither team created many scoring opportunities in the first period, Cretin ended it with a 2-1 lead.

Park played shorthanded for six minutes in the following period, but managed to prevent Cretin-Derham Hall (10-12-3; 6-10-2 SEC) from making use of any of those opportunities. Ashley Wagenman (assists Thalhuber and Mary Turitto) tied the game early in the third period. The following two goals from Monica Martineau (assists Madison Nelson and Natacia Larson) sealed the victory for Park. Quinn’s power-play goal (assists Wagenman and Thalhuber) toward the end of the period gave the Pack a final score of 5-2.

Park ended the year in fifth place in the conference standings. Fifth-ranked Roseville finished undefeated in the SEC at 18-0 and 21-2-2 overall to win the conference title.

Tags: sports, hockey, park, wolfpack, prep, updates