Travis Kotek gets the puck deep in the Dragon zone before flipping the puck on goal.
After an 8-0 thrashing of Redwood Valley the night before, the Minnesota River boys hockey team hosted the Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato Dragons Saturday afternoon. Despite jumping out to a 2-1 lead, the Bulldogs ultimately fell behind with just under six minutes to before an empty netter put the game out of reach, leading to a 5-2 win for the Dragons.
With the loss, Minnesota River is now 7-9-0 (5-4-0 BSC) on the season.
After L/D-C scored early to take a lead, a wild final four minutes featured a pair of goals by Minnesota River that allowed the team to take a 2-1 lead. The first goal was scored by Braylon Hoffman when he took a pass from behind the Dragon goal by Kellen O’Keefe. Hoffman sent the one-timer high and over the goalies glove, tying the game and O’Keefe as well as Alex Schaffer both earned assists.
Brooks Reicks sends a shot on goal.
With 1:44 to go, Talen Scwandt sent a rocket of a shot on net that the goalie couldn’t handle which resulted in Travis Kotek sending the rebounded puck past the diving goaltender.
The Equalizer for the Dragons came with just over eight minutes left in the second period as they were on the power play. Despite quality looks down the stretch, the Bulldogs couldn’t find the back of the net again and a go-ahead goal was scored with six minutes left in regulation by L/D-C.
Kaden Throdahl skates past a defender. (Ben Camp/Southernminn.com)
Minnesota River would pull their goalie with 2:01 remaining trying to tie things up, but the Dragons capitalized on the empty net with a goal at 1:13. L/D-C added a final score in the last seconds of the game, giving the match a much more lopsided looking 5-2 final.
Minnesota River returns to the ice Thursday, Jan. 26 when the team hosts Rochester Lourdes with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m.
