Austin Packers girls’ hockey falls to Rocheser Lourdes/Dover-Eyota 4-2 in Section 1A semi-finals

The Austin Packers girls’ hockey team, the No. 3 seed in the Section 1A playoffs traveled to Graham Arena in Rochester Wednesday night to take on the No. 2 seeded Eagles of Rochester Lourdes/Dover-Eyota, and Carmen Erickson tallied a pair of goals to help lift the Eagles past the Packers 4-2.

Erickson opened the scoring at 12:10 of the first period, but Austin’s Kate Holtz knotted the game at one with a goal at 3:06 of the second period, with assists to Samantha Krueger and Sara Wangen.  Lourdes, though, came back with a goal from Lizzie Pike at 4:17 to retake the lead at 2-1, and Abby Wick added what turned out to be the game-winning goal at 10:23 to put the Eagles ahead 3-1.  The Packers were not about to go quietly into the night, however, as Holtz tallied again 14:14 with assists to Isikiyah Hemann and Megan Schultz to cut Lourdes’s lead to 3-2, but the Eagles shut the door from there as Erickson scored an insurance goal on the power play only :29 into the third period for the 4-2 final.

Lourdes outshot Austin in the hockey game 59-15, with Packer netminder Shelby Davidson turning aside 55 shots to keep Austin in the game.  Lourdes goaltender Ida Huber made 13 saves in facing 15 shots for the win in net.

Austin finishes the season with a record of 8-10-1, while the Eagles move into the Section 1A championship game Friday night in Albert Lea versus the top-seeded Tigers, who defeated fourth-seeded Red Wing in the other semi-final Wednesday night 5-1.