After suffering a 4-0 loss on Tuesday to No. 4-ranked Rochester Lourdes, things didn’t get any easier for the Albert Lea Tigers boys’ hockey team as they hosted No. 7-ranked Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl Blue Devils on Friday at City Arena.

Garrett Hendrickson scored two goals for the Blue Devils as Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl defeated the Tigers 3-1.

“We came to play tonight, their is no question about it,” Albert Lea coach Roy Nystrom said. “Were sitting in here, playing the No. 7 ranked team in the state of Minnesota in Class A and we certainly gave them all they wanted.”

After a scoreless first period in which the Blue Devils outshot Albert Lea 11-7, Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl got things going in the second period when Travis Eddy and Garrett Hendrickson skated into the Albert Lea zone with a two on none break and Eddy sent a pass to Hendrickson who put it past Albert Lea goaltender Griffin Wangen to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead 27 seconds into the period.

10 minutes later, It was Hendrickson again who made Albert Lea pay this time on the power play as he snuck a shot past Wangen to give Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl a 2-0 after two periods of hockey.

In the third period, the Tigers would get on the board at the 2:59 mark courtesy of Eric Carlson.

Carlson received a pass from Nathan Stadheim and raced into the Blue Devils zone and put the puck past Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl goaltender Andy Milbridge to put Albert Lea back in the game at 2-1.

Six minutes later, The Blue Devils would get back their two goal advantage as Jace Friedlieb put the puck into a open net on a delayed penalty at the 8:01 mark to give Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl a 3-1 lead.

The goal resulted in a miscommunication when the Tigers thought they touched up the puck which would have stopped play, but the referees saw things different and continued play and that allowed Friedlieb to get the open net goal.

Andy Milbridge earned the win for the Blue Devils as he recorded 30 saves on 31 shots.

Griffin Wangen took the loss for Albert Lea as finished with 32 saves on 35 shots.

Despite the loss, Nystrom says he is proud of his teams effort that they put forth against the No. 7-ranked Blue Devils.

“We had a good showing tonight,” Nystrom said. “Our kids played hard.”

Albert Lea is back in action on Saturday as they host No. 6-ranked Hibbing/Chisholm a 3 p.m.

Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl 3, Albert Lea 1

V-MI-B 0 2 1 – 3

AL 0 0 1 – 1

Scoring

First Period

None

Second Period

V-MI-B – Garrett Hendrickson (Travis Eddy,Wes Judnick) : 27

V-MI-B – Garrett Hendrickson 2 (Wes Judnick, Travis Eddy) 10:54

Third Period

AL- Eric Carlson (Nathan Stadheim) 2:59

V-MI-B – Jace Friedlieb (Gavin Nichols) 8:01