Farmington, Minn. -- Farmington's unbeaten streak was halted at four games but all in all, Coach Jon Holmes said he was satisfied with his team's split of South Suburban Conference games last week.
 
Thursday the Tigers won their fourth straight contest with a hard-fought 2-0 win at Shakopee before coming out on the short end of a 4-2 score against Lakeville North Saturday at Schmitz-Maki Arena.
 
"This was a good introduction to high school hockey for our young team," Holmes said. "We had injuries, illness and trimester finals all in a week. All things considered, I think we handled it well."
 
A strong penalty kill and superb goaltending by Makena Underwood proved the difference in the shutout win at Shakopee.
 
The Tigers skated  off 13 minutes of penalties, including a crucial 5-on-3 situation in the second period. For her part, Underwood turned away all 34 Saber shots to lower her season goals against average to 0.50.
 
"That 5-on-3 sort of gave us the spark we needed,'" Holmes said, "We moved Kennedy Meier back to defense and Makena just had an amazing game in goal."
 
Layla Garofalo broke a scoreless tie with a second period goal on assists from Taylor Risch and Payton Blom. Morgan Mitchell added an exclamation point to the win with an empty-netter on an assist from Amelia Goblirsch in the game's final half minute.
 
Two days later against North, the Tigers were still recovering from illness and. injury and this time they couldn't pull a rabbit out of the hat.
 
The game was all but decided in the opening period when the unbeaten Panthers outshot the home team by a resounding 18-1 on the way to a 2-0 lead.
 
"I don't know if it was nerves or we were just flat, but we got crushed in the first period," Holmes said.
 
The Tigers made some adjustments at the first break and from then on the game was competitive.
 
Garofalo (from Meier) netted her second goal in as many games to cut the North lead to a goal but the Panthers' Addie Bowlby countered later in the period to make it 3-1 at the final intermission.
 
Jenna Goblirsch (from Meier) pulled Farmington to within a goal at 3:10 of the third period where the score sat until North ended the scoring with an empty net goal in the game's final seconds.
 
The Panthers finished with a 40-19 edge in shots on goal although that number was only 22-18 over the final two periods.
 
Addison Moudry had a busy night in goal for the Tigers, finishing with 36 saves.
 
Holmes said that one factor that affected Saturday's outcome was North's physical superiority.
 
"They have a much older team with their added height, weight and strength," he said. "Those things are not on our side yet, but when we get it going, we are tough and a lot of fun to watch…I think we  have proved we have what it takes to be successful in this league.
 
The girls have a little time to get healthy before they resume their South Suburban schedule with a home game versus Prior Lake on Thursday. Saturday they entertain Eastview at Schmitz-Maki.

For a complete box score, click HERE.

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