Blake frustrates Moorhead on its home ice

Unable to put the puck in the net, Moorhead has been reduced to speaking about it.

Over and over and over.

Yet a litany of subconscious scoring references has done nothing to resolve the issue.

Despite taking more shots and generally playing well, Moorhead was held scoreless for the second time in six days in a 2-0 defeat to The Blake School Friday in Minnesota high school girls hockey at the Moorhead Sports Center.

"Part of playing well is putting the puck in the net," Spuds coach Jim MacFarlane said. "You can rant and rave all you want about how you played well, but the bottom line is the puck didn't go in the net, and it goes down as a loss."

The Bears (15-3-1), ranked No. 2 in Class 1A, did manage a couple goals -- both of them directly off face offs.

Midway through the first period, Moorhead won a face off at the Blake blueline, only to have the puck stolen from its last line of defense.

The 2-on-0 breakaway ended with Kathryn Moos finding Kelsey Johnson for a 1-0 lead.

Then, 9:24 into the second, the Bears went ahead 2-0 as Johnson won a face off in the Spuds' zone, sliding the puck to Moos, who skated in right, faked and scored from the left.

Moos and Johnson, senior all-state players, now have 78 points between them.

"There was a little luck for us," Blake head coach Brano Stankovsky said. "Sometimes you need to be lucky."

Lucky, Moorhead was not.

Though posting 25 shots to the Bears' 20, the Spuds, No. 3 in Class 2A, were baffled by all-state goalie Kitty Hurley.

Similar to a recent 1-0 loss at Warroad, in which they held a 35-8 shooting edge, the Spuds had several quality chances.

What gives?

"I'm kind of stumped right now," said Moorhead leading scorer Maggie Souba, who did net two goals in Gov. Tim Pawlenty's Inaugural Hockey Game Thursday in St. Paul.

"We had shots, we had opportunities, the rebounds were just sitting in front and we didn't get there. If you're not getting there, it's not going to cut it."

There's a month left in the regular season, and Blake is a talented team, so it's not panic time yet, MacFarlane said.

But it is time to, well, put the puck in the net.

"I don't think it's a slump, I just don't know if we have that killer instinct to finish it," MacFarlane said. "You need a killer instinct that when you have a chance to get the puck in the net, you get the puck in the net."

FIRST PERIOD: 1, Blake, Johnson (Moos), 6:57.

SECOND PERIOD: 2, Blake, Moos (Johnson), 9:24.

THIRD PERIOD: No scoring.

Goalie Saves: Blake, Hurley 7-14-4--25. Moorhead, Lindner 8-4-6--18.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Terry Vandrovec at (701) 241-5548