Huskies Beat Big Nine-Leading Cougars

The Owatonna boys hockey team skated past Mankato East 6-1 Wednesday night on Dudley Otto Rink at the Four Seasons Centre in Owatonna in a game delayed one day by the weather. The Huskies leap over the Cougars in the Big Nine standings into second place. Rochester Century leads the league.

OHS got rolling quickly as senior Matthew DeHaan scored 43 seconds into the game according to the box score from Hockey Hub. Casey Johnson and Aaron Bangs assisted. Owatonna's leading-scorer Dom Valento notched his 17th goal 59 seconds later with assists to Zachary Kubicek and Johnson. The Huskies led 2-0 at first intermission.

Late in the middle frame Evan Steinberg scored his seventh goal of the season with fellow-senior Andrew Munns assisting.

In the third period, OHS extended its lead to 4-0 on senior Mason Oland's first goal of the season with senior Luke Kubicek providing the assist at 6:18. East got their only goal about two minutes later.

Wyatt Oldefendt scored an unassisted goal at 12:05 and Valento pocketed his second of the night with assists from Oldefendt and Zachary Kubicek on the power play at 14:08 for the final margin of 6-1.

Junior net minder Zach Wiese stopped 26 of the 27 shots he saw. East out shot the Huskies 27-19. OHS went 1-for-6 on the power play and shut down all five Cougar power plays.

Owatonna (14-8-1, 10-4 Big Nine for 31 points) plays a four-point game at Mankato West Friday, February 15 at 5:15 pm at All Seasons Arena. The Huskies close their regular season Saturday at 1 pm against South St. Paul at Four Seasons on KRFO AM 1390, the KRFO app and OwatonnaLive.com.

Rochester Century (18-3, 12-1, 32 points) topped Faribault 3-0 on Wednesday. The defending conference champion Panthers have four-point games remaining against Winona and Mankato East.