If you’ve followed high school sports in Mankato long enough, you realize there is a cyclical nature to it.
Sometimes West has better teams. Sometimes East is better.
At present, East seems to have the upper hand in the winter sports. That was in evidence Tuesday night at All Seasons Arena as the East girls hockey team defeated West/Mankato Loyola/St. Clair 9-0.
“When I first started coaching, West was better than us for a few years,” Cougars coach Amber Prange said. “Then it was even for a few years, and now, the last couple of years, we seem to have the edge.”
The Cougars controlled Tuesday’s game, scoring three goals in every frame and finishing with a 57-7 shots-on-goal advantage.
Freshman Grace Campbell led the way, scoring the first hat trick of her career.
East opened the scoring early as Ava Tibodeau took a pass from Eme Asher at the right circle and netted a short-range shot past goalie Alayna Smith at the 2:39 mark.
Campbell added another score about three minutes later, again scoring from right in front for a 2-0 lead. The Cougars capped the first-period scoring at 8:19 when Kira Prange deposited another close-in shot for a 3-0 advantage.
It was more of the same in the second as the Cougars scored three more goals, including one by leading scorer Jess Eykyn, who deked a defender at the blue line, skated through the left circle and picked a corner.
The other two goals came from Campbell and Brie Severson. The pattern continued in the third as Eykyn, Ella Fugazi and Campbell split the pipes again. Eykyn finished with three assists while Campbell, Tibodeau and Asher had two apiece.
“It took awhile for Grace to get going but we knew once she did she was going to be a good scorer for us,” coach Prange said. “Ella has been scoring for us lately, too.”
The bright spot for West was a penalty kill unit that denied the Cougars on all three of its power-play opportunities.
East goalie Jordan Thomas recorded the shutout, stopping seven shots.
The Cougars improve to 8-3-1, while West drops to 5-6.