The Faribault Falcons were shorthanded players Thursday due to illness and injury.  The Northfield Raiders dominated possession of the puck in a 6-1 victory at the Faribault Ice Arena.

There was an excellent crowd in attendance.  A lot of Northfield students made the trip to support their classmates.

The Falcons had a few guys out with strep throat, a few with sickness and one suffered a ankle injury in Saturday's loss in New Prague.

Goalie senior Seamus O'Connor was among the missing players for Faribault.  Foreign exchange student 15 year old Enrique Mampel-Gonzalez of Spain got his first taste of varsity game action.

Northfield senior Spencer Klotz won the opening faceoff and scored unassisted 10 seconds into the game before the Spaniard could get comfortable between the pipes.  It was Klotz's 6th goal of the season.

Mampel-Gonzalez made a number of impressive pad saves before Raiders defenseman sophmore Ty Frank notched his first goal of the season assisted by Klotz (7) at 8:48.

10:06 into first period Northfield junior Gabe Sawyer scored his first goal of the season assisted by Frank (4) and senior Luke Johnson (1).

Thirty nine seconds later Faribault answered when eighth grader Tommy Kunze hit the back of the net with his 4th goal of the season assisted by classmate Jackson Kath (4) and junior Owen Nesburg (3).

The Raiders outshot the Falcons 15-6 in the first period.

The remaining Northfield goals would be scored in the second period.  A power play goal by sophmore Cayden Monson (3) assisted by Klotz at 3:44.  Frank scored again assisted by Klotz (9) on a lift of the puck over the shoulder of Mampel-Gonzalez at 13:25.

The Raiders scored their final goal with less than a minute to go in the second period when Kamden Kaiser (6) elevated the puck over the glove of Mampel-Gonzalez assisted by Brecken Riley (1) and Matthew DeBuse (4) at 16:20.

Northfield came into the game with the best penalty kill in the Big Nine, ranked #20 in Class A boys hockey by Let's Play Hockey.   The Raiders killed off 9 minutes of penalties in the final period.

Junior Keaton Walock was goalie for Northfield.  He stopped 15 shots.

Mampel-Gonzalez played the first two periods stopping 16 shots.  Jack Knutson finished the game turning away the 7 shots he saw.

The Raiders finished the game with 30 shots on goal.  Faribault had 16.

Northfield (4-1 overall, 3-0 Big Nine) goes to St. Paul Academy Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.

Faribault (3-5 overall, 2-2 Big Nine) hosts Albert Lea Saturday night at 7:15 p.m.

The Raiders only loss was 4-2 at Farmington.  They defeated Faribault 5-0 December 4th in Northfield, beat Red Wing 5-0 and downed Thief River Falls 3-1.

In their previous meeting Northfield outshot Faribault 45-16.

Klotz received our Cashwise Foods and Pharmacy of Owatonna Delivery of the game for delivering his 4 point performance.

The three underclassmen who combined for the Faribault score were our Malecha's Auto Body of Faribualt Crunch Time Performers of the Game.  Eighth graders Tommy Kunze, Jackson Kath and sophmore Owen Nesburg.

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