Sometimes, improvement comes through adversity.
That’s the approach Hutchinson girls hockey coach Rustin Neuberger took after the Tigers fell to Mound Westonka/Southwest Christian Thursday at Burich Arena.
The loss in the second of two games Hutchinson played during the holiday break — the other was a 4-2 win over Northern Lakes Dec. 27, dropped the Tigers to 6-6 on the season. But it might also have provided a road map for the rest of the season.
“The girls definitely got a taste tonight of where they want to get to at the end of the season,” Neuberger said. “This is going to show them where they are at, right now. Who we have to play against to get to where we want to be is in the conference, like Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato, Willmar, and Mankato East is going to be up there, too. Judging how they did tonight, I feel like they’re going to be in a good situation for these upcoming games.”
That second part of the season started Tuesday as Hutchinson played host to Willmar, 6-4-1, in a nonconference game at Burich Arena after this edition of the Leader went to press.
Mound Westonka/Southwest Christian, 9-4 overall, entered Thursday’s game with a 4.92 goals-per-game average and 1.85 goals-allowed average. The White Hawks are deceptively in second place behind Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato, 7-6 overall, in the Wright County Conference.
The White Hawks took all of 14 seconds into the first period to get the win when senior forward Ellie Schmid put the puck in net with assists to junior forwards Camryn Hargreaves and Greer Hardacre.
Tigers freshman goaltender Kaiden Fitterer was stoic in net, all night, finishing with nine goals allowed on 36 shots.
White Hawks junior Ashlyn Roth was perfect in net for the visiting team, stopping all six shots she faced.
“I don’t think we even got a shot in the third period,” Neuberger said. “Unfortunately, with a young team and two young goalies (Fitterer and eighth-grader Kylie Peavy) against a team with this much depth, it’s really hard to stay up with them. We try to strategize as much as you can, see where their weaknesses are, and try to capitalize on those moments. Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way, tonight.”
Things went much better earlier in the week when Hutchinson dispatched Northern Lakes.
Forward Adler Nelson got her first varsity goal 10:53 into the first period against the Lightning. The eighth-grader followed that up at 11:53 in the second period with her second goal, assisted by sophomore defenseman Lily Docken and freshman forward Brooke Hauan.
Sophomore forward Addison Longie had the deciding goal for the Tigers at 15:01 into the second period, with senior defenseman and co-captain Erin White and freshman forward Elle Schweim credited with assists.
Freshman forward Elle Schweim capped the Tigers scoring, 36 seconds into the third period, with Longie on the helper.
