Roseau Times-Region - Serving Roseau County for over 100 Years - The Official Roseau County Newspaper

Submitted by Steve Huglen

Anyone that even remotely follows Rams Girls hockey knows that there has been one battle after another for years between these two teams. Brainerd is the defending Minnesota state runner-up in Class AA where they narrowly lost to Edina in 2 OT’s last season. The Warriors had beaten the Rams three straight times coming into the game. Of course one of those games was the triple OT 8AA final in 2018 that sent Brainerd to state. But on this Friday, December 13th night in Brainerd it was Roseau that would earn a hard fought 3-2 win. Kayla Santl scored all 3 Rams goals in this game while the Rams played a solid 51 minute team game.

ROSEAU 3 BRAINERD 2 @ Brainerd 12/13/19

Brainerd took a 1-0 lead on Josie Kramer’s 1st period goal 8:49 into the game. The Rams were on a power play and tied it 1-1 when Kayla scored from Kate Helgeson and Anika Stoskopf. There was no more scoring in the period and no scoring in the 2nd period.

With 10:48 left to play in the game, Kayla scored again to make it 2-1 Roseau with assists from Kate Helgeson and Sophie Helgeson. And then a minute and 28 seconds later, Kayla took a breakout pass from Sophie and scored on a rush down the ice to give the Rams a 3-1 lead.

The Rams played with a lot of grit and character to withstand the Brainerd 3rd period push including a lot of time in the defensive zone. Roseau would have to kill off a 5-3 power play and also play an extended amount of time either 6-4 or 6-3 against with the Warriors goalie pulled for an extra attacker. Brainerd’s Taylor Larson did score with an extra attacker on the ice with a shot from the top of the circle to close within 3-2 with still 1:44 left to play. But the Rams withstood the final onslaught with strong defensive play and key saves by Jada Pelowski to secure the win.

Brainerd ended up outshooting Roseau 23-17 in the game. However, most of the Brainerd shots came in the latter half of the 3rd period with either a one, two, or three player advantage. The Rams held a 12-7 shot advantage after the 2nd period. Jada Pelowski got the start in goal for the Rams and made 21 saves on 23 shots. Breya Sawyer stopped 14 of 17 shots in the net for the Warriors.

Brainerd will be in Roseau on Friday, January 17th with the JV game at 4:00 pm and the Varsity game at 6:00 pm. The win improved the Rams season record to 6-3-2 including 3-1 in 8AA play.

UPCOMING GAMES:

Roseau vs Shakopee (3:30) @ Eden Prairie

Tournament 12/26-12/28

EGF @ Roseau (12:00/2:00) @ Rams Sports Center 1/4/20

Warroad Roseau (5:30/7:30) @ Rams Sports Center 1/7/20