Huskies beat Canada’s Fort Frances 5-2

Owatonna girls’ hockey got a taste of international competition when it faced Ontario, Canada’s Fort Frances at the Louis Schmitz Holiday Classic last week.

The Huskies proved to be the better side after scoring first pulling away late en route to a 5-2 win in the team’s first experience against a Canadian team.

“Against a team that we don’t know – especially with each team still feeling each other out in a 0-0 first period – any time you can start out with a lead is huge. We did a nice job of protecting it even though we gave away a few goals here and there, but we kept building on our lead throughout the game,” said Owatonna Head Coach Tony Cloud.

Despite the first period remaining scoreless, Owatonna was by far the more active team outshooting the Muskies 12-3.

The second period seemed headed for another blank slate on the scoresheet until Owatonna’s Grace Mitchell kicked off the scoring by jamming home a loose puck in front of the Muskies’ net at the 10:42-mark.

Exactly two mintues later, Mitchell scored her second of the game by deflecting a perfect point pass from defenseman Kendra Bogen into the back of the net.

The Huskies’ 2-0 lead was short-lived, however, as Fort Frances scored a breakaway goal late in the period to hit the second intermission trailing by just one.

Despite the late-period shift in momentum, Owatonna hit the ice and immediately changed the course of the game when Mitchell scored her hat-trick goal just 11 seconds into the third frame.

Fort Frances answered again by scoring a power play goal half way through the period to trail 3-2, but Owatonna’s Genevieve Froman and Anna Mollenhauer both scored in the final six minutes to put the game out of reach at 5-2.

Leah Spencer collected the win in net stopping 12 of 14 shots while Mitchell led all Huskies in points with her three goals.

Owatonna played New Prague and Western Wisconsin for its final two games of the tournament, however, stats and results were not available at the time of press.

The Huskies will travel to take on Rogers next on Friday, Jan. 3 at 7 p.m.

Player Stats

vs. Fort Frances

                        G    A    P

Mitchell             3    0    3

Mollenhauer      1    1    2

Bogen              0    2    2

Froman             1    0    1

Tech                 0    1    1

                                SV  SA  GA

Spencer            12   14   2