TROJAN GIRLS HOCKEY: Eagles’ streak history

WINDOM — It has been a while since the Windom Area Eagles girls hockey team has won a game.

It’s been 35 games to be exact.

But Thursday night, the Eagles used three third-period goals to break out of their losing streak in a 5-2 win over the still winless Worthington Trojans.

“Everybody in the locker room was crying because we broke our losing streak,” said Addison Beaty, a seventh grade defenseman for Windom Area. “It feels good to get the win. This win makes us feel like we can actually win now and move on from losing.”

The last game Windom Area won was on Jan. 6, 2011 when the Eagles took down Redwood Valley 5-4 in Windom.

“It is good for these girls to get this feeling of winning,” Windom Area coach Dean Drahota said. “Hopefully, we can build on this and the girls will keep working hard.”

The Eagles found themselves in an early hole when the Trojans Betsy Thompson scored on a perfect passing play from Allison Kremer at 7:09 in the first period to take a 1-0 lead.

“We were back-checking very well and our passing in the first period was excellent,” WHS coach Eric Milbrath said. “That is how we got that goal in the first with good passing out of the zone.”

Worthington’s lead held up for almost a full period, but relentless pressure by Windom Area late in the second period paid dividends for the Eagles.

Eagles’ freshman Kaylee Rosenkranz picked up the first of her two goals on the power play with a little more than 3 minutes left in the period on a tap-in from the crease.

“We hustled tonight and we all worked our hardest to get the win,” Windom center Kaylee Rosenkranz said. “I got my goals because my line was doing a good job of screening the goalie and passing to me when I was in front of the net.”

Windom Area took the lead with 26 second left in the frame, when Beaty picked off a Worthington defenseman’s errant pass in the faceoff circle and blasted the puck past Trojans goalie Amanda Bristow.

“We came out in the first period and didn’t play hot, but we were able to pick up the intensity in the second and third periods,” Drahota said. “The girls did a good job of moving their feet and making good passes.”

Beaty extended the Eagles’ lead to two just over 30 seconds into the third on a wrap-around shot that found its way past Bristow. The lead became three when Rosenkranz buried a shot from above the faceoff dots just eight second later to make it 4-1.

“We put a lot more pressure on them than we usually do,” Beaty said. “We had a lot more confidence tonight because we felt we could win, so I think we went after the puck more.”

The Trojans answered on Thompson’s second goal of the game with 12:49 left in the period to cut the Eagles’ lead to two.

However, a goal by Windom Area’s Kaylee Janssen less than a minute later stopped Worthington’s rally cold.

“They got five lucky breaks,” Milbrath said. “The score does not show how we played. We played a lot better than it seemed and we controlled that game from the drop of the puck to the end.

“The girls should be proud tonight. They played hard the whole game.”

Through the first two periods, the Eagles outshot the Trojans 18-10, but Worthington piled on 17 shots in the third to make the final shot total 28-27 in favor of Windom Area.

Eagles goalie Emily Steen had 25 saves in the game with Bristow stopping 23 shots for the Trojans.

Worthington travels to Waseca on Dec. 15, while Windom Area hosts Morris/Benson Area on Saturday.

Worthington 1 0 1 — 2

Windom Area 0 2 3 — 5

Daily Globe Reporter Jordan Willi

may be reached at 376-7335.

Tags: sports, prep, hockey, girls, trojans, windom