Girls take 1st at Austin tourney
The New Prague Trojan girls hockey team won three games to take championship honors at the Austin Merchant’s Tournament last week.
The Trojans defeated Spring Lake Park/St. Anthony, Austin and Tartan in the tournament.
New Prague (13-4, No. 9, Class A) will return to the ice Thursday, Jan. 3, at Shakopee. On Tuesday, Jan. 8, they host Holy Angels.
Trojans 5, Panthers 2 New Prague put good pressure on throughout the game and pulled away from Spring Lake Park/St. Anthony for a 5-2 win Thursday, Dec. 27.
After a tight first period that saw New Prague get the only goal on a power play by Lindsay Paschke, the Trojans began applying pressure, outshooting the Panthers 19-8 in the second period. Still, the Panthers managed to tie the score at 1-1 with a goal at 15:46 of the period.
The Trojans answered quickly, though, with Brittany Sticha getting a goal just six seconds into a power play, putting the Trojans up 2-1 at 16:33.
New Prague extended it to 3-1 when Sticha scored a short-handed goal. The Panthers scored to make it 3-2, but the Trojans answered quickly when Sticha set up Catie Skaja for a goal. Sticha completed her hat trick in the final seconds for the 5-2 win.
Mikaela Algren had two assists, and Paschke and Sticha both had assists to go with their goals.
New Prague outshot the Panthers 35-22. Sophie Puente made 20 saves for the win.
Trojans 6, Packers 1 New Prague outshot Austin 44-17 on their way to a 6-1 win in the second round of the Austin Tournament Friday.
The Trojans led 1-0 after one period on a goal by Paschke. The Trojans got two quick goals to open the second, by Kasey Marquardt and Dani Kocina, then Sticha scored later in the period for a 4-0 lead.
Austin got its goal late in the second, and the Trojans answered with two more goals, both by Sticha, in the third.
Sticha had her second hat trick in as many games. Skaja had three assists, Jordan Anderson two assists, and Kocina, Paschke and Marissa Kivi one each.
Puente stopped 16 of 17 shots for the win in goal.
Trojans 2, Titans 1 New Prague again dominated in terms of shots on goal in the third round game against Tartan, but Titans goaltender Maggie Straka had a phenomenal game, turning back 54 of those shots in a 2-1 Trojan win.
The Trojans outshot Tartan 56-18. They scored at 8:57 in the first on a Marquardt goal. New Prague had a power play goal at 6:36 of the third by Jordan Anderson to take a 2-0 lead, then held on. Tartan got a goal at 14:31 to close to within a goal, but could not get the tieing goal.
Puente stopped 17 of 18 shots.
