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By Jay Austinson

The Albert Lea girls’ hockey team defeated Rochester John Marshall/Century 8-2 Saturday evening to claim the school’s first ever Big 9 conference championship in girls’ hockey.

Albert Lea finishes the regular season with a 20-4-1 record and will enter section play as the second seed in Section 1A.

The Tigers began the week beating Owatonna 6-3 Tuesday evening in Owatonna. This was the second meeting of the season between the teams with Owatonna winning the first meeting 3-1 in November. Morgan Goskeson scored twice in the first period to give Albert Lea an early 3-1 lead. Hanna Austinson and Mika Cichosz added goals in the second period to make it 4-2 but Owatonna’s Gabby Padgett scored early in third to put the Huskies within 1. The Tiger’s Cichosz would add her second and third goals of the game late in the third to secure the 6-3 win.

Friday evening the Tigers traveled to Rosemount to take on the South Suburban Conference champion Rosemount Irish. Rosemount took advantage of Tiger penalties to score the first two goals of the game while on the powerplay. Albert Lea couldn’t figure out how to beat Irish sophomore goaltender Gianna Marchese who turned away numerous Tiger opportunities from in close. Rosemount would add one more in the second and one in the third for a 4-0 victory. Albert Lea edged the Irish in shots 31-30 but were shut out for the only time this season.

Saturday the Tigers closed out their Big 9 championship beating the Rochester JM/Century 8-2. Scoring for Albert Lea were Shelby Evans, Olivia Ellsworth, Haley and Hanna Austinson, Goskeson and Cichosz. Cichosz scored three times, finishing the regular season leading the Tigers with 38 goals.

Albert Lea will face Simley at 3 p.m. Saturday at Roy Nystrom Arena in Albert Lea.