Spring Lake Park/St. Anthony Village's 5-3 loss last Wednesday to Coon Rapids in the play-in game of the Section 5AA girl's hockey playoffs pretty much epitomized its entire season in a nutshell.

For most the 2011-12 season, the Panthers were playing competitive hockey games, but having 14 of 19 roster players being sophomores or younger led to a season of optimism and hope, but also led to a season of chasing errors and wins.

Twice the Panthers fought back from 1-0 and 3-1 deficits to tie the game, but a combination of Spring Lake Park penalties and Coon Rapids shots led to the eventual Cardinals game-winning goal with 6:31 remaining in the game.

Coon Rapids would later add an empty net goal, but Panthers freshman goaltender Mackensay Kelly kept them close despite being outshot 53-16 for the game. Coon Rapids also scored three power play goals on seven attempts.

"On paper, this was a tough matchup," said Panthers head coach Tom Kulenkamp. "Our goalie made several key saves and kept us in the game. We were able to score some goals to keep it close, but in the end we took too many penalties."

Sophomore Kim Patterson scored the Panthers first goal that tied the game 1-1 and freshmen Maddy Wallraff and Maddy Kelly scored consecutive third-period goals tying the game 3-3.

"We were down going into the third and when we tied it we had a lot of emotion," said senior captain Karissa Thomson. "It was a close game to the end. It was rough to lose and an emotional loss."

After dropping the first two games of the season to Andover and Mounds View, the Panthers strung back-to-back wins to pull their record even 2-2. They would go on to lose six of their next seven games but rebounded to go 6-1-1 over their next seven again pulling their record even at 9-9-1 as late as Jan. 14. The hot stretch included a championship showing at the Austin Tournament in late December in which they defeated New Prague, Windom Area and Minneapolis.

Thomson missed the entire season a year ago with a torn ACL/MCL meniscus leg injury suffered in a Lacrosse game her sophomore year. Thomson along with Miranda Mulvihill, Taylor Patterson and Anna Benson were one of four seniors in a sophomore heavy lineup that played their last high school hockey game. Thomson led the team with 15 goals and 22 points and she said the year was full of momentum swings.

"It was difficult at times keeping the younger kids focused," Thomson said. "Teaching them was fun and they have a lot of good young players coming back next season."

Panthers head coach Tom Kulenkamp credits his senior class for guiding a younger team and felt for them as they finished their high school careers with the loss to the Cardinals.

"Everybody gave a great effort," Kulenkamp said. "I credit the four seniors for giving us a great effort and creating good team chemistry. It gets hard emotionally seeing their high school careers come to an end but those girls showed a lot of leadership and set up the girls for a good future."

Thomson said she is looking at playing college hockey for Bethel next season but is willing to walk-on if that falls through. "I'm definitely going to play hockey again next season," she said.

The Panthers finished the season 11-14-1 overall and improved on last year's record when they finished 9-16-1.

"Our highlight this season was winning the Austin Tournament and our two wins over Totino-Grace." Kulenkamp said. "This was a fun team to coach."