The Rochester Raiders bounced back nicely from a narrow loss in Friday's opening round of the adapted floor hockey state tournament.
The Raiders poured in 14 goals in two games Saturday at Bloomington Jefferson High School to capture fifth place in the state tournament for a second consecutive season.
Rochester (11-4) topped Maple Grove, 7-1, in a consolation game, then defeated Mounds View/Irondale/Roseville 7-6 in the fifth-place game.
The Raiders got off to a strong start against Maple Grove, scoring three goals in the first period and three more in the second. Jeffery Tanner had a hat trick and one assist for Rochester; Conor Jones had two goals and two assists; and Ben Jordan scored one goal with two assists.
Rochester outshot Maple Grove 24-11, and Caleb Kallis was the winning goalie, stopping 10 of the 11 shots he faced. Nathan Liter scored in the final minute of the game for Maple Grove.
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In the fifth-place game, the Raiders built big leads after each of the first two periods and hung on to win. Rochester led 3-1 after one and 5-2 after two periods.
Mounds View tied the score 6-6 with just 1:23 remaining, but Jones answered for the Raiders with just 50 seconds to go with his biggest goal of the season for the 7-6 victory.
Nicole Mock led the Raiders with four goals in the game and was named to the all-tournament team. Jones scored twice, while Tanner and Jerome Price scored once each. Kallis again picked up the victory, stopping 15 shots, as Rochester outshot Mounds View 51-21.
The Raiders lose four valuable seniors to graduation — Tanner, Krista Jacobson, Hawk Beaugard, Brandon Pollock.
