TAPPED AWAY — Fairmont Area’s Lily Truesdell (6) taps the puck away from a Rochester Mayo opponent during nonconference hockey action Thursday night at Martin County Arena in Fairmont. The Cardinals’ Maia Goerndt (13) and goaltender Ilana Moeller watch the icy action. (Photo by Greg Abel)

FAIRMONT — The Fairmont Area Cardinals girls hockey team lost its final regular-season game against the Rochester Mayo Spartans 7-0 Thursday night. Spartans’ senior defender Elle Roth scored two goals and dished out an assist to lead Rochester Mayo to the win.

The Spartans didn’t waste time as they came out aggressive in the opening period.

With 12:53 remaining in the first period, Roth found space and sophomore Abby Weick hit her perfectly with a pass to get the Spartans on the board.

With just under 3 minutes left in the period, junior defender Natalie Campbell scored a power-play goal off an assist from Milania Black to put the Spartans up 2-0.

The second period was more of the same from the Spartans.

Just 20 seconds into the period, senior forward Andrea Augeson scored off an assist from Roth to extend the Spartans’ lead.

Nine minutes later, Black found space and tucked a shot into the back of the net off an assist from senior defender Layla Rippentrop.

Less than 2 minutes later, it was freshman Olivia Dahl creating offense for the Spartans. She converted off a nice feed from senior Claire Siems.

With just 12 seconds remaining in the second period, Rippentrop converted off a dime from junior Katherine Cummings to push the Spartan advantage to 6-0.

In the third period the Cardinals showed signs of life, but couldn’t convert any of their opportunities.

With a minute left in the game, Roth tucked away her second goal of the night off an assist from Josie Fulton to cement the 7-0 win.

Cardinals head coach Eric Householder found positives going forward.

“Our goalie (Ilana Moeller) did pretty well in the net,” Householder said. “She was somewhere around 40 shots faced you know, so that alone is something that can keep you in a game.”

Moeller finished the night with 37 saves after facing an incredible 44 shots throughout the game.

Rochester Mayo (9-11-2) will look to stick to its winning ways at 7:15 p.m. Saturday against Mankato West in Rochester.

As for Fairmont Area (7-17), it will await next week’s Section 3A playoff schedule to see who they will face off with next Thursday night.

Roch. Mayo    2 4 1–7

Fairmont       0 0 0–0

Scoring Plays

1st period

RM–Elle Roth (Abby Weick), PP., 12:53.

RM–Natalie Campbell (Milania Black), PP., 3:27.

2nd Period

RM–Andrea Augeson (Elle Roth), 16:40.

RM–Milania Black (Layla Rippentrop), 7:09.

RM–Olivia Dahl (Claire Siems), 5:11.

RM–Layla Rippentrop (Katherine Cummings), 0:12.

3rd Period

RM–Elle Roth (Josie Fulton), PP., 1:12.

Shots–Rochester Mayo 44; Fairmont Area 10.

Saves–Ilana Moeller (FA) 37; Grace Kober (RM) 10.

Boys Hockey

The Fairmont Area Cardinals boys hockey squad dropped a Big South Conference matchup with the Waseca Bluejays 9-1 Thursday night.

With the win, Waseca sweeps the season series after defeating Fairmont Area 7-2 on Nov. 30.

No individual or team statistics were reported yet.

As for Fairmont Area (2-21), it will look for a win at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday night against Minnesota River at Martin County Arena in Fairmont.