According to sophomore Erin Brousseau, even though Hopkins Park lost, the team played hard and were evenly level with rival Benilde-St. Margaret’s during its game Nov. 27.

“I think that even though we lost, I think it was still a really hard game and I think we played really well,” Brousseau said. “I think it was pretty even and like who dominated and I think we still played really hard.”

Hopkins Park lost 2-3 to Benilde at Minnetonka Ice Arena Nov. 27 bringing its overall record to 3-3 according to MN Girls’ Hockey Hub.

According to head coach Ryan St. Martin, Benilde had double the shots on goal on Hopkins Park.

“I thought it was a fairly even game even though they doubled us on shots on goal. It was really exciting to watch from my perspective,” St. Martin said.

Sophomore Abby Meyer said the defeat resulted in disappointment, but the level of intensity was high.

“It was the hardest I’ve seen anybody play on our team. I’m new to the team so I didn’t know how big a rival it was with BSM,” Meyer said. “I was pretty disappointed with the loss but I feel like we worked our butts off.”

St. Martin said the rivalry did have an impact on the team because of knowing coaches and players at Benilde and facing them again later in the season.

“The main thing is we get them again in a month and we might get them again in the playoffs,” St. Martin said.

According to Brousseau, the desire to win brought out the aggressiveness from both teams that made the game different from previous competitions.

“I think just like the aggressiveness and like both teams rivalry and thats been there for a year so I think we both really wanted to win,” Brousseau said. “I think that showed through our aggression especially in the first.”

Meyer said the team was excited to play Benilde before the game and worked hard during it.

“I think we were all pretty fired up before the game and we were all rooting each other on. We worked really hard as a team,” Meyer said.

Brousseau said the attitude of the rival game will carry over to the next.

“I think we’ll just carry that same attitude into our next game and like a little bit of fire under our belt and like wanting to win more throughout the season because this was a tough loss but like at the end of the day we still wanna play hard,” Brousseau said.

According to gopark.org, Hopkins Park will play Duluth Denfeld at 7 p.m. Nov. 30 at Minnetonka Ice Arena.