Austin boys’ hockey falls to Winona in Section 1A playoffs 5-1

The Austin Packers, the No. 9 seed in the Section 1A boys hockey playoffs were on the road at Bud King Ice Arena in Winona Tuesday night to tangle with the eighth-seeded Winhawks, and three second period goals for Winona helped propel the Winhawks past the Packers 5-1.

After a scoreless first period, Roman Grulkowski tallied at 4:04 of the second period to put Winona ahead 1-0, and Alex Charles wound up scoring what turned out to be the game-winner at 6:26 to make the sccore 2-0.  Grulkowski tallied his second goal of the game on the power play at 13:48 to increase Winona’s lead to 3-0 at the end of two, but the Packers cut the lead to 3-1 on a goal by Kaleb Ree at 3:34 of the third period.  That would be as close as Austin would get as Charles netted his second goal of the game at 10:10 to restore the Winhawks three goal lead at 4-1.  Grulkowski finished off a hat trick with an empty-net goal at 15:16 to account for the final score.

Austin was whistled for five penalites for 10 minutes while Winona was penalized four times for eight minutes.  The Packers were 0-2 on the power play while Winona was 1-3, and Brayden Klapperick faced 41 shots and made 37 saves in the net for Austin.  Alex Benson turned away 31 of the 32 shots he faced to earn the win between the pipes for Winona.

Austin finishes their season with a record of 1-24.  The Winhawks move on to play No. 1 seed Dodge County in Dodge Center Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m.