By Carl Goenner / Sports Director / St. Cloud, Minn.

-The St. Cloud Crush girls hockey team advanced to 3-0 on Saturday by defeating the Bloomington Jefferson Jaguars 4-3 in overtime on senior night.  Reece Ruska had two points in the game and scored the game-winning goal.  The Crush have now won three straight to start the season for the first time in two years.

The first period started slow and remained scoreless for most of the period.  The first powerplay of the day was awarded to St. Cloud after Bloomington-Jefferson’s Veya Flanders was called for a trip.  On the powerplay, St. Cloud’s Brooke Kahlhamer weaved past defenders and scored to give the Crush a 1-0 lead in the first period.  Just 26 seconds later Reeghan Stevens netted her 4th goal of the year moving St. Cloud’s lead to 2.  

In the second period, The Jaguars found their footing and Kayla Starr knocked in a goal on the powerplay after a Reece Ruska penalty.  Ella Gebhardt then responded, netting a goal with 8:22 to go in the period.  Trailing 1-3 the Jaguars stepped up their game and Karmen Melnichuk scored a rebound goal to slim the deficit to one goal.  

The Jaguars took their momentum into the third period and tied the game up at three a piece, less than two minutes in.  Five minutes later, Sheridan Stockman added another goal for St. Cloud to take the lead again.  After Ava Ostulund tied the game up near the end of the third period, the game headed to overtime.   In a hard fought overtime period St. Cloud’s Reece Ruska scored the game winning goal to defeat the Jaguars 5-4.

Next up, the Crush will take on Alexandria in St. Cloud on Thursday, Nov 20 at 7:00 p.m.

Photo Credit: St. Cloud Tech Athletics.  Elizabeth Hennen.