Austin Packers girls’ hockey downs Rochester Century/John Marshall 7-2 Tuesday evening

The Austin Packers girls hockey team was looking to snap a two-game losing streak at Riverside Arena Tuesday evening versus the Rochester Century/John Marshall Panthers in a Big 9 contest, and it was Sara Wangen and Megan Schultz each scoring twice to help lead the Packers to a 7-2 win.

Austin jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one period when Wangen opened the scoring on the power play at 9:29 of the first period, with assists to Maci Talamantes and A.J. Barrera, and Wangen increased Austin’s lead to 2-0 with a goal at 13:49, with assists to Barrera and Camille Dunlap.  The Packers added a short-handed goal from leading scorer Kate Holtz at 16:02 of the period, with an assist to Izzy Hemann to boost Austin’s lead to 3-0.

Century cut into the Austin lead to start the second period when Paige Groslie tallied at 5:30 to make the score 3-1, but the Packers restored their three-goal lead at 9:40 of the period when A.J. Barrera tallied her third goal of the season and her third point of the game, with an assist to Allie Davidson.  The Packers boosted their lead to 5-1 at 2:25 of the third period when Camille Dunlap scored unassisted, and Megan Schultz increased the lead to 6-1 with a goal at 9:05 with a tip in front of the net on a shot from the right wing boards in the Panthers zone from Izzy Hemann.  Century/John Marshall picked up a goal from 7th grader Emila Gamble at 10:07 of the period to cut Austin’s lead to 6-2, but Schultz tallied :30 seconds later with an assist to Kate Holtz for the 7-2 final.

Austin outshot Century/John Marshall 39-30 for the game, and sophomore goalie Kyia Radford-Garcia turned away 28 of the 30  shots she faced to earn her 10th win of the season, while Panthers goaltender Abigail Conners made 32 saves in facing 39 shots.  The Packers were 1 for 4 on the power play, while the Panthers were 0 for 3, and the shorthanded goal for the Packers, their fourth of the season was the sixth given up this season by Century/John Marshall.

Austin continues a busy week of action Thursday as they will play host to Rochester Mayo in a make-up game from earlier in the season, with face-off scheduled for 7:00 p.m.  The Packers will then play host to Mankato West Saturday evening at 7:15 p.m, and they will then host Fairmont next Monday, January 31st at 7:15 p.m.