Wortington Squirts finish in fourth place in Austin Packer Classic Squirt B tourney

WORTHINGTON — The Worthington Trojans Squirt B hockey team took fourth place this past weekend at the seven-team Austin Packer Classic Squirt B tournament at Packer Arena in Austin.

The Worthington Squirts started the tournament with a 3-0 shutout on Saturday morning over the Austin Packers. Worthington goals were scored by Logan Kleuver, assisted by Bryce Olsen; Davis Moore, assisted by Tom Bauman; and Bauman, assisted by Ryan Newman. The Trojans outshot the Packers 20-12. Sam Fellows earned the shutout for Worthington in goal.

The Trojans moved on and played the River Lakes Stars (Paynesville/Cold Spring area towns) later Saturday afternoon. The Trojans started out the game very strong, taking a 3-1 lead over a strong Stars squad after the first period, due to goals from Olsen (assist Krew Aljets), Moore (assist Bauman) and an unassisted goal from Olsen.

Worthington gave up seven straight goals in the second period to go down to defeat. The Stars outshot the Trojans 26-16. Fellows had 18 saves in net for Worthington.

The Worthington Squirts finished the tournament with a 6-5 loss in overtime to Albert Lea Squirt White in the third-place game. After spotting the Tigers a three-goal lead in the first period, the Trojans started their comeback with a goal from Newman (assist Olsen) at the end of the first period. The Trojans fought back and tied the game 4-4 due to goals from Bauman (assist Moore) and two short-handed goals in a span of 22 seconds by Moore, while Worthington was killing off a penalty.

Newman found Moore uncovered in front of the net for the first goal and moments later Moore took advantage of a turnover behind the Tigers’ net for a wrap-around goal to tie the game.

Olsen scored an unassisted goal with 4:35 left in the game to give the Trojans their first lead of the game, but the Tigers answered with a powerplay goal with 2:13 left in the game to send the game into overtime. Despite numerous chances, the Trojans weren’t able to net the game-winner and Albert Lea did around three minutes into the “sudden death” overtime period.

The Trojans outshot Albert Lea 23-19, with Fellows making 13 saves in goal, including four in the overtime period.

The Trojan squirts are back in action with games this Saturday versus Luverne B at 3 p.m. on Saturday and versus New Ulm/Sleepy Eye B at 4 p.m. on Sunday at the Worthington Arena.

Tags: sports, prep, hockey, squirts