EAST GRAND FORKS -- The Bemidji High School girls hockey team opened its regular season with a 7-1 loss at East Grand Forks on Friday night.
The Green Wave (1-0) got on the board first with a goal from Nicole Schlenk with just 33 seconds left in the first period to take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
East Grand Forks proved to be too difficult to handle in the second period as the home team pocketed five goals in the frame.
The Green Wave extended their lead to 2-0 after Tiffany Hanson’s goal 24 seconds into the second but Paige De La Hunt cut the deficit in half with her goal at the 2:22 mark of the period. Rachael Holm was credited with the assist.
However, East Grand Forks came right back with a goal from Meghan Weber just 34 seconds later. Madison McDonald then scored two consecutive goals and Hanson bagged her second to give the Green Wave a 6-1 lead after two periods.
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McDonald completed her hat trick at the 4:46 mark of the third period to top off the 7-1 win.
Goaltender Brooklyn Delap stopped 38 of 45 shots faced for the Lumberjacks (0-1) in net.
“Our goalie played really well,” BHS head coach Casey Reierson said. “We had a lot of breakdowns in the D zone that we were hoping we wouldn’t see but they were there.”
Reierson says defensive play will be the team’s top priority in practice before Bemidji’s next game at Grand Rapids at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
“Our D-zone coverage is going to be the big focus on Monday at practice,” he said. “We’re going to work on stick-on-stick, being on top of whoever’s our man in the zone. We need to be covering them as best we can and that was the result of a lot goals this game. We have another good team that’s coming up that we’ve gotta cover everybody and we gotta be on them (with) stick-on-stick coverage.”
East Grand Forks 7, Bemidji 1
BHS 0 1 0 -- 1
EGF 1 5 1 -- 7
First period -- 1, EGF, Schlenk (unassisted), 16:27.
Second period -- 2, EGF, Hanson (unassisted), 0:24; 3, BHS, De La Hunt (Holm), 2:22; 4, EGF, Weber (Schlenk), 2:56; 5, EGF, McDonald (Schlenk, Hanson), 9:57; 6, EGF, McDonald (Schlenk, Weber), 12:10; 7, EGF, Hanson (unassisted), 16:03.
Third period -- 8, EGF, McDonald (Schlenk), 4:46.
Saves: BHS, Delap 38; EGF, Whalen 19.
