Staff report
Posted: Tuesday, December 7, 2010 11:29 pm

Owatonna junior Emily Cochran keeps her eye on the puck as she skates up the ice during Tuesday’s Big Nine Conference game against Austin at the Four Seasons Centre. Ian Stauffer/People's Press

OWATONNA — Five goals in less than 2 1/2 minutes helped the Owatonna girls hockey team pull away from Austin in a four-point Big Nine Conference game Tuesday night.

Shelby Noble, Ashley Kniefel, Payton Noble, Aimee Goodew and Cailyn McCauley all scored in the final 2:19 of the first period as the Huskies rolled to an 8-1 victory.

“We kind of opened the floodgates there,” OHS coach Tim Hunst said.

McCauley also scored two third-period goals to record a hat trick as Owatonna improved to 2-0 in the Big Nine. Every conference game counts as two points except when the Huskies only play a team once. The Packers are one of those teams, so Tuesday’s win essentially counts as two victories.

Owatonna peppered the goal with 54 shots on goal, while the defense gave up just 14 shots. Keshia Reuvers finished with six saves, and Mallorie Dietz stopped seven shots for the Huskies.

OHS (3-1 overall) will take on nonconference foe Farmington in a key section game at 8 p.m. Friday at the Four Seasons Centre. The Tigers won the Section 1AA title in 2007.



OHS scoring: First period—Emily Cochran (Cailyn McCauley, Payton Noble) 4:32 (pp); Shelby Noble (Aimee Goodew) 14:41; Ashley Kniefel (Lauren Spatenka) 14:54; P. Noble (McCauley) 15:05 (pp); Goodew (Kelsey Rohrig) 16:24; McCauley (Rohrig) 16:59; Third period—McCauley (Jamie Kiefer, Abby Sawyer) 13:04; McCauley (Sawyer) 16:51. OHS goalies: Keshia Reuvers 6 saves; Mallorie Dietz 7 saves.

Boys hockey
Owatonna 5,
Austin 1

AUSTIN — Matt Kimball, Gunnar Elstad and Zack Klein all scored their first varsity goals as the Huskies opened their Big Nine Conference season with a victory.

“We have three games this week and three next week, so early in the year, we are skating a lot of lines,” OHS coach Will Fish said. “We want to keep fresh legs and give people an opportunity to show what they can do.”

Juan Sanchez and David Feichtinger also scored for OHS (1-0, 3-2), which won its third straight game. Owatonna goalie Sean Hale stopped 18 shots.

“It was great to see some smiles on the bench as people were getting their first goal,” Fish said. “Other people were happy for them. It was good to see that.”

The Huskies will go on the road 7:15 p.m. Thursday to take on Farmington in a nonconference game. OHS will then play host to Orono at 8 p.m. Saturday.



OHS scoring: First period—Matt Kimball (Jesse Ebeling) 7:39, Gunnar Elstad (Robert Dietz, Paul Swenson) 9:23; Juan Sanchez (Ebeling) 16:18; Second period—Zack Klein (Nathan Bloomquist) 3:07; David Feichtinger (Alex Whited) 16:40 (pp). OHS goalie: Sean Hale 18 saves.