There were many similarities between this year’s Holiday Classic tournament and last years.  T-G’s first opponent last year was Woodbury, and the Eagles defeated the Royals in overtime by a score of 3-2.  This year, T-G faced Woodbury again, and again the outcome would be decided in overtime.  Unfortunately, the favorable bounces that the Eagles enjoyed versus Rogers in Friday’s game did not carry over to this game.  A non whistle and a questionable whistle would play a big part in Woodbury’s 2-1 overtime victory.

Woodbury was looking to seek revenge over last year’s OT loss as they came out fast.  They fired 3 point blank shots on Logan Knip just 1:40 into the game and Logan turned them all away.  Play was up and down for most of the period.  The Eagles got on the board first with pretty puck movement.  Molly Adam won the draw over to Maddy Javorina deep in the Royals zone.  Maddy passed it to Laura Minkoff at the blue line who sent a low shot towards the net.  Kristen Dellich redirected the shot but Woodbury netminder Kaelen Giesser made a pad save.  The rebound came right to Molly Adam who notched her 5th goal of the season to give T-G a 1-0 lead.  The lead was short lived as Royals forward Erin Goodell skated end to end and knocked over Logan Knip in the crease, appearing not to try to avoid the collision.  An errant clearing pass by the Eagles went right to Woodbury defensemen Lauren Cotroneo who fired a high shot into the net before Logan could get back on her feet.  The Royals tied the game just 1:01 after T-G got on the board.  There would be no further scoring in the period.

At the 7:36 mark of the second period, Allison Parnell broke in behind the Woodbury defense but was turned away by Kaelen Giesser.  Again, the Royals responded right away and had a 2 on 0 breakaway, but Logan Knip came up strong for the Eagles.  The game was still tied at 1 after 2 periods.

Starting the 3rd period, the T-G coaches decided to change up the lines to try and infuse some offense.  Play was a bit muddled, but the Eagles were able to generate some scoring opportunities.  Neither team was able to get the elusive second goal in regulation, so we would be going to overtime again.

Midway through the overtime period, T-G was whistled for a questionable interference penalty.  It was a very tight call made at the time, especially when the rest of the game was called much more loosely.  The Eagles took their timeout to get themselves settled.  With the draw deep in the T-G zone, Erin Goodell won the faceoff for Woodbury and pushed the puck ahead and then sent a crossing pass to Erin Brino who was alone on the back door to put in the game winner.  With the loss, the Eagles record fell to 7-6-3 as they head into the New Year’s break.

T-G will return to conference play when they next host Spring Lake Park on Thursday, January 3rd at 7:00pm at Parade Ice Garden.