Late Goal Leads to Tie Between Spartans, Minnehaha Academy

Spartans outshot and outskated visiting Minnehaha Academy for much of a girls hockey matchup Tuesday night, but in the end settled for a frustrating 3-all tie.

The Spartans outshot the visiting Saints 41-16 at Veterans Memorial Community Center Tuesday night. But hard-working Minnehaha goalie Julia Carle only let three of the 41 attempts get past her.

The Spartans got off to a slow start, dominated most of the second, third and overtime periods, but couldn't quite land a knockout blow.

"We played OK," said Simley head coach Ashley Stewart. "We had no breakdown the first five minutes of the game but their goalie just really—they have a very good goalie. If we could have put the puck away it would have made all the difference. Our first line was making all the passes, doing all the right things, we just couldn't finish a play. But their goalie was the best player of the game."

Minnehaha broke a one-all tie in the second period and held it until midway through the third period when the Spartans scored two goals in 1:15 span to grab a 3-2 lead.

Simley senior forward Jessica Pate scored her second goal of the game to tie the match at 2-all with 8:31 to play. Ninth-grader Laken Muller then scored a little more than a minute later for a 3-2 Simley lead.

The Spartans looked like they would skate off with their second win of the season, but Minnehaha took advantage of a power play situation to tie the game at 3-all with just 2:33 left.

"We had all the momentum," Stewart noted. "It was those last four minutes of the game. I don't know if it took us on our heels or what it was. It just kind of set us back. And then it was like we were playing catch up. And then at the end and in the overtime I thought we really dominated yet again. We just couldn't finish."

Neither team scored in the overtime.

Simley is now 1-2-1 on the season. Minnehaha is 4-1-1.

The Spartans host Fergus Fall, ranked No. 14 in Class A, Friday in a game starting at 7:30 p.m.