FAIRMONT – For its season opener, the Austin girls hockey team set two goals – get off 20-25 shots and hold Fairmont to fewer than 25 shots.

Friday, November 19, 1999

FAIRMONT – For its season opener, the Austin girls hockey team set two goals – get off 20-25 shots and hold Fairmont to fewer than 25 shots.

Neither of those things happened Thursday and the Packers paid the price, falling 4-2 in a rough-and-tumble affair at Martin County Arena.

"They’re big girls," Austin coach Denny Bray said of the Cardinals, whose basketball box-out style of play allowed them to carve out a camp in front of Austin goalie Katie Fedoryk and fire away. Fairmont (1-1 after a season-opening loss to Owatonna) shot 31 times to Austin’s 14 with most of the Cardinals’ shots coming from close range.

Fedoryk stood on her head at times, but stopping every point-blank blast was simply too much to ask.

"We needed to do a better job of covering their wings in front of our net," said Austin defenseman and captain Bobee Jo Lang, who picked up a goal and four penalties in the game as she tried valiantly to make Fairmont pay for its physical play.

Despite sometimes dominating play from the Cardinals, the Packers hung tough.

Rhianna Jacobs gave the Packers life with 5 minutes, 10 seconds remaining in the third period, when she drifted through crease traffic and stuffed home a goal past eighth-grade goalie Hannah Johnson. Jacobs’ score made it 3-2.

But little more than a minute later, Fairmont’s Sarah Wilson put the game away. The freshman, who twice struck pipes with shots earlier in the period, tried a wrap-around that Fedoryk swiped away. Wilson quickly retrieved the rebound and banged the puck home for the final 4-2 Fairmont advantage.

A similar sequence cost the Packers in the second period. After Lang’s long slap shot tied the game at 1-1, Fairmont struck back minutes later with two goals 32 seconds apart.

"I thought we had the edge after we scored," Bray said. "But we had some breakdowns after that. Our forwards weren’t getting back to help."

Throughout the game, Austin seemed its strongest on the penalty kill. The Packers didn’t allow a short-handed goal as the Kellie Petersen-led penalty kill rose to the occasion several times.

"We had to keep ’em out," Petersen said. "We were aggressive."

In the end, Fairmont looked more like the aggressor. In a four-minute power play to end the first period, the Packers managed only two shots.

In the end, the Packers looked like a team that fell shy of its goals.

Austin 0 1 1 – 2

Fairmont 1 2 1 – 4

First Period – 1, Fairmont, Gwen Fenrich (Aja Walters), 2:19.

Second Period – 2, Austin, Bobee Jo Lang (Rhianna Jacobs), 3:12. 3, Fairmont, Walters, 6:31. 4, Fairmont, Maggie Bettin (Sarah Wilson), 7:03.

Third Period – 5, Austin, Jacobs, 9:50. 6, Fairmont, Wilson, 10:53.

Shots on goal - Fairmont 7-10-14 31; Austin 5-4-5 14.

Goalies – Austin Katie Fedoryk (31-27). Fairmont Hannah Johnson (14-12).