Falls’ girls hockey team had its largest offensive output of the season Monday night when the Broncos shut out Lake of the Woods at home, 5-0.
The win was the third straight for the Falls, which improved to 3-1 for the season.
The Broncos kept the puck primarily on the Bears’ end of the rink by outshooting Lake of the Woods, 36-10, as Falls junior goalie Taylar Nelson recorded the shutout and her first victory of the season in goal.
Falls’ offensive assault featured a hat trick by senior forward Abbey Fox, who scored both Bronco goals in the opening period and capped off the team’s scoring on a goal with 4:35 left in the third period when several hats came flying on the ice at Bronco Arena.
“It was pretty exciting,” Fox said. “That was my first three goals of the season.”
Falls broke open a two-goal lead in the final period with two more goals within 28 seconds of each other.
Senior forward Jessica Ringhofer scored with 8:15 to play on an assist from Alyssa Bergstrom. Then sophomore forward Amy Auran, who helped assist Fox’s two opening-period goals, scored with 7:47 left on an assist by Ringhofer.
Head coach Gerald Bolstad said he attributes the victory to the Broncos being quicker on the ice than the Bears.
“We had a lot more team speed, and they couldn’t handle that very well, so that was the whole thing,” he said. “We just kept moving our feet and kept pressure on them.”
Though the Falls is on a three-game winning streak, and on Monday night scored the most goals of any game this season, Bolstad said the team still has room for improvement.
“We’re still not making very good decisions with the puck, and I don’t think we’re going to the net like we need to be doing,” he said. “But that will come, and it’s still early in the season.”
Bolstad said the Broncos are dealing with a couple of injuries following Monday’s game. He noted senior defensive player Alyssa Bergstrom, who went down on the ice with about 5:00 to play, sustained a hip injury, while junior defensive player Rebekah Ford injured an ankle.
“We ended up with a couple of girls hurt now, which isn’t really good, because we’re not very deep,” he said.
The Broncos will be back in action this weekend when they play at Detroit Lakes on Friday and Saturday.
I. Falls 5, LOW 0
I. Falls 2 0 3 — 5
LOW 0 0 0 — 0
