Boys’ hockey loses in rivalry matchup
Loss gives Benilde-St. Margaret’s a leg up in Conference standings
February 14, 2020
Park faced off against Benilde-St. Margaret‘s in a four-point game Feb. 13. Since Park was only scheduled to play against Benilde-St. Margaret‘s one time during the regular season, the outcome had double the impact in their section standings, meaning it was a ‘four-point’ game.
According to head coach Andrew Sackrison, the long-running conflict between the two teams lead to an intense atmosphere during the game.
“It’s a rivalry game (so) for those in the building you can expect that emotions will run high. I thought the refs did a good job for the most part, dealing with it all, to be honest. Overall, that’s the type of game you want,” Sackrison said.
Senior Jamie Sorenson said although the team’s effort remained constant, it was unable to score the goals it needed to win.
“I thought we played pretty good, until, well we played pretty good in the first period, didn’t do so hot in the second period and then we tried our best in the third but we couldn’t bury it,” Sorenson said.
Sackrison said Park tried to go into the game with the same mentality as every other game it has played this season.
“Well, obviously we had to treat it like any other game, to be honest. I mean, not to put too much pressure on ourselves,” Sackrison said. “We had to just come out play the game the right way and trust that doing that would put us in a good position.”
Going into the game, both teams had 10 points, but Park’s 0-4 loss raised Benilde-St. Margaret’s to 14 points, according to the Star Tribune.
According to Sorenson, Park’s inability to clear the puck from the defensive zone handed Benilde-St. Margaret’s scoring opportunities.
“A weakness I saw tonight was the defensive side of our team. We didn’t play too hot in the defensive zone, couldn’t get the pucks out and that led to them scoring,” Sorenson said.
Sackrison said the team will be reviewing tape and working on capitalizing on its power plays before it potentially faces off against Benilde-St. Margaret’s again.
“We had enough chances that we just didn’t convert on any of those power plays to get some momentum going our way,” Sackrison said.
Park’s final regular season game is 3 p.m. Feb. 15 at the Rec Center against Bloomington Jefferson.
