FAIRMONT – The Fairmont Area Cardinals and Luverne Cardinals hockey teams are hardly strangers. The two teams faced off in the Section 3A championship nine months ago.

Unfortunately for the hometown Fairmont Cardinals, the visiting Luverne Cardinals exited with a 4-3 win on Tuesday night at Martin County Arena.

“They played their hearts out,” Fairmont Area head coach Ashley Olson said about her team. “They dug deep, did everything we asked them to do and played three pretty good periods of hockey.”

Mariah Aukes led Luverne in February in scoring and picked up where she left off, netting the first-period hat trick. Aukes started off by picking the puck away from Fairmont Area and made good on a one-on-one situation with goalie Sadie Sandersfeld around the 14:51 mark.

Aukes then utilized her speed and knocked in another goal 11 minutes later. The senior forward earned the hat trick with 2:26 to go in the opening frame. Rylee Olson was able to get the puck to Aukes in traffic for the goal, sending Luverne into the first break with a 3-0 advantage.

Fairmont Area had nine shots on goal in the period, but Luverne goalie Emilie Bartels rejected each one to record the early shutout.

Fairmont Area senior Myah Lytle avoided the potential shutout by taking advantage of a shorthanded Luverne.

Regan Feit was given a two-minute penalty, and Lytle sent a shot down the middle, with the assist from Cori Emler, with 7:49 to go in the middle period.

Sandersfeld sent away all 15 of the visiting Cardinals’ shots to hold the team scoreless.

Early in the third period, Mackenzie Householder took over for Fairmont Area to give the team new life. Luverne started the final period one person short after a second-period penalty carried over into the third, and Householder used that to her advantage.

Joni Becker came around the net and passed to Householder, who successfully nailed the off-balanced power-play goal six seconds into the frame.

“It’s something that we’ve been working on and it’s good to see that the work we’re doing is paying off. We’ll continue to build off of it,” Olson said about Fairmont’s two power-play goals.

One minute later, Fairmont Area found itself on the other side of the penalty, but it didn’t affect Householder. The seventh grader swiped in the shorthanded goal to knot the game at 3-all.

“She (Householder) stepped up when she needed to step up and scored two really big goals,” Olson said. “It gave us the momentum that we needed to finish the third period. I’m proud of her for that.”

But Luverne came right back and retake its lead at the 12:11 juncture. Lexi Henrich gained possession of the puck and sped down the ice, knocking in the eventual game-winning score for Luverne.

Bartels finished with a game-high 33 saves, while Sandersfeld turned away 25 of Luverne’s shots.

Fairmont Area (1-1) plays at Mound Westonka on Saturday.

Luverne 3-0-1-4

Fairmont Area 0-1-2-3

Scoring Plays

1st Period

L-Mariah Aukes (unassisted), 14:51.

L-Aukes (unassisted), 5:45.

L-Aukes (Rylee Olson), pp., 2:26.

2nd Period

FA-Myah Lytle (Cori Emler), 7:49.

3rd Period

FA-Mackenzie Householder (Joni Becker), pp., 16:54.

FA-Householder (unassisted), shorthanded, 15:33.

L-Lexi Henrichs (unassisted), 12:11.

Shots on goal: Fairmont Area 9-10-17-36; Luverne 9-15-5-29.

Saves: Emilie Bartels (L) 9-9-15-33; Sadie Sandersfeld (FA) 6-15-4-25.

Penalties: Fairmont Area 2 for 4 minutes; Luverne 2 for 4 minutes.

Power-play chances: Fairmont Area 2-for-2; Luverne 1-for-2.