Park girls hockey: Despite late flurry, Wolfpack falls 4-3 to East Ridge

After winning four of five games, Park started a three-game skid with a 3-2 loss last Tuesday to White Bear Lake in White Bear Lake and a 4-3 loss to East Ridge Saturday at Bielenberg Sports Complex.

In Saturday’s Suburban East Conference and intra-district grudge match, the Wolfpack (6-12-1, 2-9-1 SEC) nearly forced overtime against the Raptors (9-9-1, 7-4-1 SEC) with a three-goal third period but their rally fell short.

Emma Waller knocked home a goal with 22 seconds left in the game to cap the furious comeback. Following an icing call on East Ridge with just under 3 seconds left, Park got a shot on goal, but wasn’t able to put it in the net before time expired. Ashley Wagenman and Maddy Jeske added the other goals in the third period for Park.

East Ridge grabbed a 4-0 lead at the 4 minute, 51 mark of the third period and appeared in control at that point.

Kayla Bender led off the scoring for the Raptors at 7:06 of the first period. Brooklyn Pierre added two goals in the second period at 6:37 and 11:26. Jaedyn Walz put the exclamation point on the scoring with her goal in the third period and East Ridge sustained the rally attempt.

The Raptors outshot Park 30-23 for the game and went 0-for-1 on the power play while the Wolfpack finished 0-for-2.

Dani Perry, Alyssa Wickenhouser, Mary Turitto and Abbey Kirsch added assists for Park in the loss.

Caitlin Tate made 26 saves in goal for the Wolfpack.

Preceding the loss to East Ridge, White Bear Lake used a two-goal second period to hang on for a 3-2 victory over Park Tuesday in Park.

The Bears got goals from Lexi Englund and Lauren Basich to grab a 3-1 lead in the second period and withstood the Wolfpack attack in the third period.

Tate made 42 saves on 45 shots against White Bear Lake in the loss.

Turitto scored two goals including the equalizer 26 seconds into the second period to make it 1-1 at the time. Turitto added her second goal at 16:20 of the second period to pull within one again, but that’s as close as it got.

Park finished with 23 shots on goal and went 0-for-1 on the power play. The Bears went 0-for-5 on the power play.

The Wolfpack took on 10th-ranked Roseville Tuesday at Cottage Grove Ice Arena after the Bulletin went to print. Next, Park faces off with 20th-ranked Cretin-Derham Hall Saturday in Cottage Grove.

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