Albert Lea girls’ hockey shuts out Winona, improves to 11-3 on the season

Published 10:03 pm Thursday, December 21, 2023

The Albert Lea Tigers girls’ hockey team took to the road one last time in 2023 and traveled to Winona Thursday evening to take on the Winhawks in a Big 9 matchup.

Albert Lea jumped out to an early lead as Liley Steven took a feed from Zizi Willett behind the net and beat the Winona goaltender just over four minutes into the game. Shelby Evans made the score 2-0 for the Tigers at the 11:51 mark of the first period with assists from Aryah Hansen and Steven.

The second period saw the Tigers continue to dominate. Mika Cichosz scored on a laser from the point 6:41 into the period on an assist from Morgan Goskeson to make it 3-0. At the 10:35 mark of the period, Haley Austinson buried a Goskeson pass in tight to the net to increase to lead to 4-0. Cichosz scored again just 13 seconds later on an assist from Hansen to close out scoring for the period and give Albert Lea a 5-0 lead heading in the final period.

The third period saw the Tigers add two more goals, with Haley Austinson getting her second of the game on assists from Sydney Kolker and Willett and Goskeson rounding out the scoring on an assist from Cichosz to make the game a 7-0 final.

Jayda Moyer made 11 saves in the shutout victory for the Tigers, who improve to 11-3 on the season.  Albert Lea now has an extended holiday break, with their next game being Jan. 9 in Luverne against the defending 3A champion in what should be an exciting tilt.