Fans at the Wildcat Centre in River Falls were treated to an exciting girl’s hockey game between the Hastings Raiders and the St. Croix Valley (SCV) Fusion on Tuesday night, Nov. 21. For the Fusion, it was their first official game of the season and for the 2-1 Raiders, it was their fourth game in 10 days. The back-and-forth game ended in overtime with the Raiders winning 4-3.

The first-game jitters were clear for the Fusion for a good portion of the first period. Hastings had the early pressure applied which eventually led to the first goal being scored at the 10:42 mark of the first. Fusion Goalie Anna Woolley made a save and thought she had it covered up. Luckily for the Raiders, the official and Madyn Hanson both saw the puck was sitting loose by Woolley’s right leg pad.

“First, I saw that the whistle wasn't blown and then I saw that she didn't actually have it covered, it was just sitting there on her pad. I was literally like two inches away so then I just went after it and ended up going in the net,” explained Hanson.

Hanson was assisted on the goal by Jade Schauer and Grace Petrich.

The Fusion settled in nicely for the remainder of the game and tied things up before the end of the first. Jane Volgren scored at 14:10 with the assists going to Morgan Kivel and Kendall Sundby. Even with the early pressure from Hastings, the Fusion had the edge in shots on goal 10-7 as the teams went to the locker rooms for the first intermission.

The second period was all Fusion; they came out of the locker room with high energy and kept the Raiders on their heels for most of the period. Sundby added two unassisted goals within 50 seconds of each other to give the Fusion the lead between the sixth and seventh minute of the second. One of Sundby’s goals was a testament to her quickness when she shot around two Raider defenders who were simply unable to help protect the Raider keeper Victoria Steinke from being left to fend for herself.

The script flipped once more at the start of the third period and the Raiders came out of the locker room with intensity. Having allowed 22 shots on goal in the first two periods to their own 16 shots, Hastings worked back to being aggressive in the offensive zone outshooting the Fusion 9-7 in the third. The more important piece was they made more of the shots count.

Hanson scored her second goal of the game at 8:06 into the third assisted again by Schauer and Petrich. Hastings was now down one with just under nine minutes left in the period. With 3:52 left in the third, Hastings was on the powerplay because of a “too many players on the ice” penalty and Autumn Burt scored the game-tying goal. Burt was assisted by Addie Seleski and Olyvia Erickson.

Regulation time expired with the game tied at three and after a few-minute break, the overtime period began. Forty-four seconds into the extra period, Hanson found the back of the net for the hat trick and the Raider victory.

Total shots on goal favored the Fusion 30-28, Hastings had eight minutes of penalties on four infractions while St. Croix Valley was only shorthanded twice for four minutes. Hastings converted on 1-of-2 powerplay opportunities while stifling the Fusion on all four player advantages they had.

Woolley faced 28 shots, stopping 24 for a .857 save percentage for St. Croix Valley. Steinke stopped 27 of 30 shots for a .900 save percentage.

The girls had two more games last week and they demonstrated the key to being a successful sports team, having short memories. First, they faced Black River Falls in Baldwin on Nov. 24, defeating the Tigers 7-3.

The next chance to catch the Fusion is Dec. 12 against Western Wisconsin, then again on Dec. 15 to take on another Minnesota team, Red Wing. Both games are at the Wildcat Centre and both are scheduled for 7 p.m. puck drops.