High School Hockey Today: Dodge County getting familiar with Rochester teams

Remember when blogs were the "in" thing of the day?

Once upon a time, a decade-ish ago — the "ancient" days, as my daughters would call them — myself and former PB Sports Editor Ben Pherson hosted a blog we called "Faceoff" on the PostBulletin.com/sports website.

During the hockey season, we ran a short feature every day we called "High School Hockey Today." It was a quick glance at that night's games involving teams from southeastern Minnesota, with a sentence or two at the end about the best games around the state that night.

Even when "Faceoff" became non-existent, I still continued to put together those daily notes, so I could have them handy when rounding up each night's high school hockey games.

As I thought about different types of quick and easy-to-read content we could put on our site, it seemed that dusting the cobwebs off "High School Hockey Today" might be a place to start. So we'll bring it back; if you like it, I'll keep posting. If not, I'll keep the cobwebs handy and gently put them back in place.

With that, here's a look at tonight's boys hockey games involving southeastern Minnesota teams:

When: 7 p.m., Graham Arena IV

DODGE COUNTY WILDCATS

Record: 6-4-0 overall (3-2-0 in last 5: W-L-W-L-W)

Last game: 3-1 win vs. John Marshall on Dec. 30 at the Kiwanis Festival

Up Next: vs. Century, 7 p.m. Saturday, at Dodge County Ice Arena

Trend: Sophomore standout Gryffon Funke has scored in five consecutive games. He has eight points (5-3–8) in that span.

Lots of time against Rochester teams: The Wildcats are amid a stretch where they play four out of five games against Rochester teams. They defeated Century (5-3) and John Marshall (3-1) last week at the Kiwanis Festival. After facing Lourdes today, hey’ll host Century on Saturday.

LOURDES EAGLES

Record: 8-3-0 overall (3-2-0 in last 5: W-W-L-L-W)

Last game: 3-0 win vs. Faribault on Tuesday

Up Next: at Austin, 1 p.m. Saturday

Trend: Freshman Jack Roe has three goals and four total points in the past four games.

Magic Number: The Eagles’ magic number so far this season has been 3. They have allowed 3 or more goals in their three losses. In all eight of their wins, they’ve allowed two or less goals.

When: 7:15 p.m., Graham Arena I

OWATONNA HUSKIES

Record: 1-3-0 Big Nine, 2-10-0 overall (1-4-0 in last 5: L-W-L-L-L)

Last game: 5-0 loss at Gentry Academy on Tuesday

Up Next: vs. Hastings, 7 p.m., Jan. 11

Trend: The Huskies have played a challenging schedule, opening the season against Minnetonka (ranked No. 9 in Class AA) and playing games against Fergus Falls (No. 6 in Class A), Duluth Denfeld (No. 7 Class A) and Gentry (last year’s Class A state champ).

Oh-So-Close: The Huskies have three one-goal losses and two two-goal losses. Three of their losses have included allowing an empty-net goal.

MAYO SPARTANS

Record: 2-0-1 Big Nine, 6-2-1 overall (3-1-1 in last 5: W-L-W-W-T)

Last game: 3-3 tie at Northfield on Tuesday

Up Next: vs. Hibbing, 7:15 p.m. Friday

Trend: Sam Jacobson’s streak of eight consecutive games with a goal was snapped in Tuesday’s tie at Northfield, but junior Jacob Brown scored for a third consecutive game. He has five points in that three-game stretch.

Balance and depth: Mayo has 12 players with five or more points this season, the most in the Big Nine. Mankato East is next with 10 players with 5-plus points. Century has eight players with five or more points, while Faribault and Albert Lea have six each.

When: 7:15 p.m., Prairie Island Arena

RED WING WINGERS

Record: 1-2-0 Big Nine, 3-5-0 overall (1-4-0 in last 5: L-L-W-L-L)

Last game: 4-1 loss vs. Two Rivers on Dec. 30.

Up Next: vs. Proctor, 7:15 p.m. Friday

Trend: Senior goalie Dixon Ehlers has been outstanding all season, recording a .926 save percentage so far. He has stopped 363 out of 392 shots faced this year.

AUSTIN PACKERS

Record: 0-3-0 Big Nine, 0-4-0 overall

Last game: 9-3 loss vs. Mankato West on Dec. 18.

Up Next: vs. Lourdes, 1 p.m. Saturday

Trend: The Packers are just happy to be going against a team not wearing red and white. Austin hasn’t played a game in 19 days. It is scheduled to not go more than four days without a game the rest of the season.

When: 7:15 p.m., Bud King Ice Arena

ALBERT LEA TIGERS

Record: 1-2-0 Big Nine, 8-2-0 overall (5-0-0 in last 5: W-W-W-W-W)

Last game: 3-2 W at Windom on Monday

Up Next: vs. Mankato West, 7:15 p.m., Jan. 13

Trend: The Tigers are on a six-game winning streak and captured the Blue Division championship at the Kiwanis Festival in Rochester last week. Standout goalie Dakota Jahnke hasn’t allowed more than two goals in a game since Dec. 14. During the Tigers’ current winning streak, he has allowed six total goals and has stopped 144 out of 150 shots (an outstanding save percentage of .960).

WINONA WINHAWKS

Record: 0-4-0 Big Nine, 1-6-1 overall (0-4-1 in last 5: L-L-L-L-T)

Last game: 5-5 tie against Waseca on Tuesday

Up Next: at Red Wing, 7:15 p.m. Saturday

Trend: Sophomore forward Teis Larsen has eight points (1-7–8) in his past five games. Larsen is the Winhawks’ leading scorer, with 13 points.

La CRESCENT-HOKAH LANCERS

Record: 6-4-0 overall (3-2-0 in last 5: W-L-W-L-W)

Last game: 8-4 win vs. Minnesota River on Tuesday

Up Next: at La Crosse Aquinas, 7 p.m., Jan. 11

Trend: Lancers’ sophomore forward Wyatt Farrell has been on a tear to start the season. He not only leads the team in scoring (16-6—22), but he ranks 8th in the entire state in goals (16) and is tied for 3rd in the state in power-play goals (7).

BLACK RIVER FALLS TIGERS

Record: 9-2-0 overall (5-0-0 in last 5: W-W-W-W-W)

Last game: 5-1 win at Baraboo/Portage on Tuesday

Up Next: vs. Viroqua, 7:30 p.m., Jan. 13

Trend: The Tigers have been tough on defense all season. Though they have not recorded a shutout, they have allowed just one or two goals in a game nine times. Goalie Christopher Muir has been tough to beat; he’s 8-2-0 with a 1.83 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage.