CLEARING THE ZONE ­— Fairmont Area’s Frankie Martin (12) controls the puck and clears the Cardinals’ defensive zone during Big South Conference hockey action against Luverne on Tuesday night at Martin County Arena in Fairmont. Fairmont Area’s Alex Martin (far right), Abi Sundeen (18) and goaltender Ilana Moeller watch the action. (Photo by Greg Abel)

FAIRMONT — The Luverne Cardinals girls hockey team defeated the Fairmont Area Cardinals 11-0 Tuesday night at Martin County Arena behind an explosive second period offensively in a Big South Conference battle.

Following a two-score opening period, Luverne didn’t waste time putting the game out of reach.

In the first period, Luverne eighth-grade forward Ellie Van Batavia got the scoring underway with a goal with 7:03 remaining in the period. Van Batavia scored off an assist from senior Anika Boll.

With just over a minute left in the opening period, Van Batavia returned the favor by assisting junior forward Payton Behr for the second goal of the game.

It took much less time for Luverne to strike again once the second period got going.

Under a minute into the second, Van Batavia found Boll to make it 3-0 in Luverne’s favor. Shortly after the Boll goal, it was sophomore forward Ella Apel getting involved. Apel scored off a feed from freshman Macie Edstrom to push the advantage to four.

For Luverne’s fifth goal, eighth-grade forward Trinley Vanderburg got the job done unassisted.

Exactly 40 seconds later, it was Van Batavia scoring again for Luverne, this time off an assist from freshman defender Rylee Kurtz. Apel rejoined the barrage when freshman Tenley Behr found her zipping up the ice to push the lead to seven.

Apel would go back-to-back for Luverne when she netted the team’s eighth goal off a find from sophomore forward Greta McClure with 5:12 remaining in the second. With that goal, Apel claimed her hat trick for the game.

Finally, with 2:39 left in the second period, Luverne would finish the scoring run off with a shorthanded goal when freshman forward Isabella Steensma found the back of the net off an assist from defender Rylee Kurtz.

The third period would go by quickly.

Luverne would tack on two goals to finish its scoring on the night. First, with 10:52 left in the game, Tenley Behr scored off a timely pass from Greta McClure to make the score 10-0. Lastly with just under nine minutes remaining in the game, freshman forward Marlee Nelson scored a goal unassisted to cap off the Luverne 11-0 victory.

As for Fairmont Area, they struggled to find much success on the offensive end of the ice.

Fairmont Area finished with just eight total shots on goal to its credit and was on its heels the majority of the match.

Things seemed competitive early with Fairmont Area having six shots to Luverne’s 16 in the opening period, but things tightened up.

Junior goalkeeper Ilana Moeller did her best in the net for Fairmont Area after having to face a staggering 69 shots in the game.

Fairmont Area head coach Eric Householder kept it brief following the loss.

“You know, this one is a tough loss and I think we will just have to look at any positives from this result and keep moving forward from there,” Householder said.

Luverne will look to continue its winning ways at 7 p.m. next Tuesday when they play host to Albert Lea. With the win, Luverne improved to 10-5 overall.

Fairmont Area falls to 2-11 overall with the loss and look to turn things around at 7 p.m. Thursday when they take on Worthington on the road in Worthington in conference action.

Luverne         2 7 2 –11

Fairmont      0 0 0 — 0

Scoring Plays

1st Period

LU–Ellie Van Batavia (Anika Boll), 7:03.

LU–Payton Behr (Ellie Van Batavia), 1:21.

2nd Period

LU–Anika Boll (Ellie Van Batavia), 16:22.

LU–Ella Apel (Macie Edstrom), PP., 15:11.

LU–Trinley Vanderburg (unassisted), 14:23.

LU–Ellie Van Batavia (Rylee Kurtz), 13:43.

LU–Ella Apel (Tenley Behr), 11:39.

LU–Ella Apel (Greta McClure), 5:12.

LU–Isabella Steensma (Rylee Kurtz), SH., 2:39.

3rd Period

LU–Tenley Behr (Greta McClure), 10:52.

LU–Marlee Nelson (unassisted), 8:54.

Shots–Luverne 69; Fairmont Area 8.

Saves–Ilana Moeller (FA) 58; Emma Saarloos (LU) 8.

Boys Hockey

Luverne 9, Fairmont Area 0 — Luverne shut out Fairmont Area during Big South Conference boys hockey action Tuesday night at Blue Mound Ice Arena.

No individual or team statistics were provided.

Fairmont Area (1-12) plays host to Worthington at 7 p.m. Thursday night at Martin County Arena.