Tuesday’s game was a Missota Conference game, but it also was a crossover game between a Section 1A team (Northfield) and a Section 1AA team (Farmington).  Farmington has put together a string of wins that has pushed them to #2 in Section 1AA ratings behind Lakeville North.  The Tigers are 3-0 against 1AA foes and have only one Section 1AA game remaining on their schedule playing Owatonna at the Four Seasons Arena in Owatonna.  The rest of the Tigers games are Missota Conference games (9) including a game with New Prague at Farmington January 28.  The Tigers and the Trojans are currently leading and unbeaten in conference play.  They tied in their first game played before Christmas 4-4.  The Farmington/New Prague game winner will likely determine who wins the Missota Title this year.

Northfield had won four straight games before last night and had moved up in the Section 1A ratings.  Last season, the Raiders ended up with the #4 seed in Section 1A and almost upset Rochester Lourdes in the semifinals losing 5-4 after leading late in the third period 4-3.  This year’s Raiders have lost 7 of their top scorers from last season’s team, a team that was defensive oriented giving up less than 3 goals a game.  This year’s team is giving up nearly 4 goals a game.

Farmington was favored coming into the game.  Their 4-1 win was no surprise; but how the Tigers won is a tale of how a goalie can control and dominate a game.  The Raiders, behind the great goal tending of Paul Hummel, almost stole a victory last night.

Period One

Most games start with the teams feeling each out, the puck being moved from end to end or side to side in the neutral zone, with little scoring.  Last night’s game did not start that way.  Instead, the first period opened with Farmington setting up camp inside the Northfield zone and attacking the Northfield net time and again.  Farmington’s forwards moved the puck well down low behind the Raiders’ net and could find the shooter in the sweet spot between the hash marks in the slot for quick shots.  The forwards along the end boards did it with quick passes often under duress from a Raider defenseman, but the shooters in the slot could not beat Northfield's goalie.

The first time, Hummel made the stop on a quick shot, one thought great play, something you see only once or twice in a game.

At the 13 minute mark of the first period, Hummel had stopped four shots from the sweet spot.  It was an amazing start to  a hockey game.  At the 12 minute mark, Northfield started to get some pressure on the Tiger goal ending the Tiger’s opening barrage.  Farmington’s goalie Gage Overby had to make 10 stops in the game, but a number of them were difficult saves.  Northfield would press the attack hard down low once they established control of the puck in the Tiger’s zone.

At the 8 minute mark of the first period, Northfield scored on a neat passing play in neutral ice.  Northfield’s defenseman, Erik Bartho, hit Nate Scofield with a pass from his zone.  Scofield took the pass in neutral ice along the right boards and one timed a nice lead pass to Garrett Samuelson breaking along the left boards catching the Farmington defense leaning right.  Samuelson skated to the center left faceoff circle and beat Overby with a hard shot to the left side of the net.  The Raiders led 1-0.  It would be one of two shots on goal that the Raiders would get in the first period.

Thirty seconds later, Northfield drew a penalty.  Farmington had great pressure on Hummel skating even.  Now skating on the power play should bring more pressure and surely a goal, but the Northfield penalty kill was excellent.  They killed the penalty with little pressure from the Tiger forwards.  Farmington failed to score on all four Northfield penalties in the game.

Back to even strength, the relentless Tiger attack began again.  Both teams tired, but Farmington still kept the Raiders pinned in the Northfield zone.  The Northfield breakout attempts along the board were constantly being pinched by Farmington’s defensemen playing inside the blue line.  The Northfield passes toward center ice to avoid the pinch, were either picked off by Tiger forwards inside the blue line or turned by the Farmington defense in neutral ice, dumped back into the end boards behind the Raiders’ net. 

With two minutes left in the first period, Farmington finally beat Hummel.  The Tigers worked the puck off the Raiders’ end boards on the left side to Dallas Tucker in the lower left faceoff circle.  Tucker’s shot beat Hummel through the 5-hole to tie the game.  It was a goal the Tigers needed.  They could not leave the ice having not beat Hummel.  He stopped 15 of 16 tough shots in the first period.  The game was tied 1-1 after one.

Period Two

The late first period Tiger goal had changed the dynamics in the second period, Farmington became more methodical in their attack, and the Raiders’ defense scrambled more. What helped Northfield the most were the four penalties called in the second period.  On the power play the Raiders got good pressure on the Tiger’s defense, playing most of the two minute penalty in the Tigers’ zone.  Farmington penalty killers tried to “leak a forward” out on the Northfield power play, but the Raiders would stop the rush.  On a Raider penalty kill, most of the two minutes was spent with the Tigers chasing the puck in their half of the ice

Playing 5-on-5 hockey, the Tigers terrorized the Northfield defense, beating them constantly down low for the good shot.  More than once, Hummel had to take a Tiger shot on goal full force from point blank range and recover to dive on the rebounding puck.  Farmington’s forwards could move the puck well in the Northfield zone, they just couldn’t beat Hummel.  The second period ended in a 1-1 tie.  The Tigers outshot the Raiders 12-4 in the period.

Period Three

Paul Hummel had carried the Northfield team for two periods.  At the end of the third period, the Farmington’s forwards were starting to crack out of frustration.  A defenseman had been called for a needless trip just as the period ended.  Farmington would be on the penalty kill for the first two minutes of the third period.  If the Tigers couldn’t beat Hummel or if the Raiders scored on the power play, the Tigers would be in a deep hole.

What changed is that Northfield’s power play was not there.  The Raiders spent most of the opening two minutes in the third period inside their zone on the power play.  Hummel had to come up with some big saves again and Raiders’ defenseman Jacob Noel had to save Hummel by diving over his right leg pad to knock a puck lying in the crease to the boards just before a Farmington forward could bury the puck in an open net.

Still it took a bit of luck to score the Tigers game winning goal.  The Tiger’s Chris Fitzgibbons and Northfield’s outstanding defenseman, Andy Carroll, were locked up in the sweet spot in front of the Raiders’ net.  Fitzgibbons had the puck caught in his skates and managed to kick the puck to his backhand side to the right of the goal and take a quick back hand shot that slid along the ice.  The puck beat Hummel’s right skate finding a hole just wide enough between the skate and the right post to slide into the net.  The problem is the right post is off its spot and had been pushed back several inches.  If the post had been on the spot (as the picture above shows); the puck would have hit the post.  Hummel protested the call, but was overruled by the ref.  Regardless, it was a game winner.  Fitzgibbons got the goal; Grady Hauswirth and Jake Trippel got the assists.

The goal broke the spell Hummel had cast on the Tigers.  Farmington came back to score three minutes later.  This time Fitzgibbons broke through the Raiders’ defense and scored from the sweet spot to put Farmington up 3-1.  Hauswirth and Trippel got the assists.  With five minutes left on the clock, Austin Martinsen scored for the Tigers an unassisted goal to end the game 4-1.

The Players

Farmington’s 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 peewee A teams had great seasons.  The 2010 team made it to the East Regionals and lost to Edina, Eden Prairie, and Highland in pool play.  The 2010-2011 team had eight players returning from the 2009-2010 team, including the defense and goalie Jake Oettinger.  The 2011 team lost in the peewee A state championship game that year to Edina 7-3 (Keiffer Bellows, Ryan Zuhlsdorf, Garrett Wait, Casey Dornbach, and Auggie Moore).  Farmington lost one of their defense in the District 8 playoffs and went with three defensemen in their first two state tourney games, beating Grand Rapids 2-1 in overtime and Wayzata 5-2.  For the championship game, they pulled John Siebenaler back from wing to play defense.  Siebenaler played defense well in that game against Edina, but the Tigers lost his scoring punch up front, and is one of the reason’s Farmington lost the state championship in 2011.  This season, Siebenaler is the #2 scorer for the Tigers behind Justin Novak.  Novak, Siebenaler, Austin Martinsen, defenseman Erik Holmstrom, and Grady Hauswirth are the top five point getters for the Tigers.  All five played on the Farmington 2009-2010 peewee A team.

Northfield’s 2010-2011 peewee A team had a good season in District 9 posting a winning record and playing in the South Regional.  They were eliminated by Lakeville North from a state tourney seed, losing 5-3.  Eight of the players on the peewee team that year are now sophomores playing on the Raiders varsity.  Grant Parrish, Erik Bartho, Ryan Torbenson, and Nate Marek, four players from the peewee A team are among the top 10 point getters for this year’s Varsity team.  Northfield’s peewee A teams from 2009 through 2011 never played Farmington.

Whats Next?

Farmington continues its Missota Conference play.  Nine of the ten remaining games in Farmington’s regular season schedule are games with Missota foes.  The Tigers travel to Victoria to play Chanhassen Thursday and then return home to play Chaska next Tuesday.  The Tigers should win their next five games leaving them unbeaten in Missota play when New Prague arrives in town on January 28.   

Last night’s game was the first of six games played in the next eleven days for the Raiders.  Northfield continues conference play with a trip to Holy Angels for a game Thursday and then play Simley in a non-conference game on Saturday.