Girls Hockey: Santl’s hat trick lifts Roseau past Warriors

121519.S.BD.BrainerdGirlsHockey.jpg — Sophie Robinson of the Warriors shoots the puck Friday, Dec. 13, against Roseau at the Essentia Health Sports Center in Brainerd. Kelly Humphrey / Brainerd Dispatch

By Jeremy Millsop

December 13, 2019 at 7:58 PM

Kayla Santl entered the Essentia Health Sports Center in Brainerd with 13 goals and 23 points in 10 games.

She left the building with three more points as she tallied all three goals for the Roseau Rams in a 3-2 victory over the Brainerd/Little Falls Warriors Friday, Dec. 13.

The line of Santl, Anika Stoskopf and Kate Helgeson combined for eight points Friday in the matchup of Class 2A’s 10th-ranked Warriors and 12th-ranked Rams.

With the score tied 1-1 going into the third, Santl took a quick pass from Helgeson on a 2-on-1 and slung it past Warrior goalie Breya Sawyer for a 2-1 lead. A minute later Helgeson set up Santl for a breakaway goal and a 3-1 lead with 10 minutes remaining.

“They’re veteran players, all three of them,” Roseau head coach Steve Huglen said. “Annika and Kayla, they’re in their fourth year on the varsity and they’ve been key players all four years. They just continue to get better. They’re really key players. Then we have Kate Helgeson on the right side, who is a junior, and she’s been with us for three years. They’re all just very talented players. They’re all Division I hockey players. The two seniors have signed with Bemidji already and I would expect Kate to do that, too.”

B/LF outshot Roseau 16-5 in the third period with most of that action coming on a 5-on-3 power play. However, the Warriors couldn’t find an opening on Ram’s eighth-grade goalie Jada Pelowski, who finished with 21 saves.

“We actually have three goalies who have started a varsity game,” Huglen said. “We’re just trying to sort things out and figure it out, but the girls have all kinds of confidence in Jada and the coaches do, too. Then we have confidence in the other two so it’s good to have that problem, but no doubt when an eighth-grader step in like that she’s a very special goalie for sure.”

With 1:23 remaining Taylor Larson blasted a shot near the blue line that finally broke Pelowski’s wall and pushed the score to 3-2.

After a Roseau timeout, BLF pulled Sawyer for an extra skater, but managed just one shot in the final minute.

Josie Kramer picked up her third goal of the season to start the scoring. The unassisted tally pushed her season total to 13 points, which is second on the Warriors. Kramer now has eight points in the last four games, including a game-winning goal in overtime against Sartell Thursday, Dec. 12.

“She’s been a sparkplug energy-wise,” Warriors head coach Jack Freeman said. “We needed that one there. She was coming on to the ice off a change and one of the things Josie has been doing is she’s been getting up and down the ice so quickly. It paid off there. She jumped on the puck, created the turnover and hit her spot.”

Santl tied the score four minutes later on a power-play shot past Sawyer.

“It’s a talented line and we knew it was coming in,” Freeman said. “Tonight they got the better of us. It’s a quality group of three forwards. But we needed to be better top to bottom tonight.”

Both teams finished the first period with three shots apiece, but Roseau took the shot advantage in the second period with nine compared to Brainerd’s four. The Rams caught the Warriors on a shift change and had a 3-0 rush against Sawyer, but the freshmen swallowed the shot into her glove.

On a BLF power-play, Roseau’s penalty kill went on the offensive and peppered Sawyer with a barrage of shots before the Warrior netminder collected the puck.

The Warriors finished 0-4 on the power-play, which included 1:11 of 5-3 action for BLF.

“We’ve been working on our penalty kill,” Huglen said. “For years we’ve prided ourselves on our penalty kill. It’s been a little bit down this year and so it’s been a point of emphasis for us. I was happy with the way the girls battled on that today.”

Despite the optimum chances by Roseau, the teams went into the third period tied.

It was likely a better feeling than against Sartell/Sauk Rapids where the Warriors trailed 2-0 going into the third only to rally and force overtime. The extra frame Thursday may have affected the Warriors Friday, but Freeman wasn’t looking for excuses.

“I thought it showed, but then we had legs the last 10 minutes of the game so we needed to have that for three periods,” Freeman said. “There’s going to be ups and downs throughout a season, but we have to find a way even during tough weeks and when we’re tired.”

For more photos, go to https://bit.ly/2EmpphP .