Streak Reaches Seven for Owatonna, Dodge County

The winning streak reached seven for the Owatonna and Dodge County boys' hockey teams in holiday tournament openers Thursday. The Huskies beat Coon Rapids 8-1 at the Heritage Tournament in Duluth. Dodge County rallied for an 8-5 win over New Richmond at the Kiwanis Tournament in Rochester.

The Huskies opened defense of their Heritage Tournament championship with a dominating effort, out shooting the Cardinals 53-12. Sam Sampson scored the first of his two goals four minutes into the contest. Devon Rousch and Tanner Stendel assisted.

Taylor Bogen scored a little over a minute later from Collin Pederson and Dom Valento. Zack Kirsch added another at 8:45 giving the Huskies three goals in just over four minutes of game time. Stendel and Rousch assisted.

Coon Rapids got on the board in the opening minute of the second period to make the score 3-1. Zach Kubicek converted a penalty shot at 3:11. Pederson scored at 6:55 from Bogen and Valento, who added the third goal of the period at 7:49 for a 6-1 lead after two periods.

The Huskies rounded out the 8-1 win with third period markers from Casey Johnson on assists from Joey Dub and Grant Achterkirch and Sampson's second of the game from Sam Knoll and Stendel. Zach Wiese made 11 saves for the win. See the Hockey Hub box score.

Dodge County rallied from a 3-1 first intermission deficit against New Richmond (WI) at Graham Arena in Rochester for an 8-5 win. It's believed to be the first time the Wildcats (7-2) have won an opening round game at the Kiwanis event.

Dodge County scored three straight goals in the second period to briefly take a 4-3 lead, however the Tigers evened the game at 4-4 by the end of the second. The Wildcats stormed out to start the third period with a pair of goals in the first two-and-a-half minutes for a 6-4 lead. Dodge County added a pair late in the period, including an empty netter to notch their seventh straight victory.

Brody Lamb and Gaven Giesler each scored twice. Miles Smith had two assists. Isaac Dale made 18 saves for the win. Read the Hockey Hub game recap.