Card girls' hockey: Hopkins upends Alexandria

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The Alexandria girls’ hockey team took the ice with heavy hearts on Tuesday night after learning about the death of former assistant coach Verd Anez earlier in the day.

Head coach Mitch Loch said his team handled the game as well as could be expected as Hopkins came out with a 6-1 victory on its home ice.

Alexandria outshot the Royals 8-5 in the opening period. Shelby Iverson converted off an assist from Claire Illies 10 minutes, 27 seconds into the game to tie things at one apiece.

That is how things went into the second period before Hopkins broke away. The Royals scored four unanswered goals in the middle frame, two coming from Corbin Boyd as they went into the second intermission up 5-1.

Hopkins continued to control the pace in the final period. They outshot the Cardinals 11-1 and added a goal from Jillaine DeYoung to put the finishing touches on the win.

“They handled the first period very well,” Loch said of his team. “They skated very well, shots were good, but a couple things didn’t go our way, and you could see it slipping quick. That is kind of what we thought might happen if we didn’t get a few bounces to go our way.”

The Cardinals will try to move forward with its last regular season game next Tuesday. They were at St. Cloud last night, Thursday, before heading to Moorhead for the finale on February 8.

GAME SUMMARY

ALEXANDRIA 1 0 0 – 1

HOPKINS 1 4 1 – 6

SHOTS – Alexandria – 8, 11, 1 – 20; Hopkins – 5, 12, 11 – 28

SCORING SUMMARY – FIRST PERIOD – Hopkins – Marielle Mankey, 7:15; Alexandria – Shelby Iverson (Claire Illies), 10:27

SECOND PERIOD – Hopkins – Leah Chase (Allison Rolandelli, Olivia Chase), 4:35; Hopkins – Corbin Boyd (Jillaine DeYoung, Caitlin Essel), 6:31; Hopkins – Boyd (DeYoung), 11:00; Hopkins – Marielle Mankey (PPG) (Boyd, Rolandelli), 12:15

THIRD PERIOD – Hopkins – DeYoung (Boyd), 3:25

GOALTENDING – Alexandria – Stephanie Drown – 11 saves, 16 shots faced; Lindsey Lien – 11 saves, 12 shots faced; Hopkins – Hayley Nybo – 19 saves, 20 shots faced

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