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Schools

Royals Fight Back, Fall To Skippers

Hopkins wins two of the three periods against heavyweight Skippers, but still comes up short for first conference win.

If the Hopkins boys’ hockey team could erase just one period from the books all season long, it most likely would have been Saturday afternoon’s against Lake Conference rival Minnetonka.

While the Royals outplayed, out-shot and outscored the Skippers in the second and third periods, it was allowing six goals in the first that did them in as Minnetonka hung on for a 8-5 win, denying Hopkins its first conference win of the year.

“You come over to this rink and you never know what you’re going to get,” Skippers coach Brian Urick said. “They battle hard here.”

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The Minnetonka scoring barrage came from sophomore forward and leading point getter Vinni Lettieri, who potted two early. Max Coatta, Shane Gachne, Erik Baskin and Chase Lindsay each added tallies to establish the early lead.

Max Ostenso one-timed a pass from Jimmy Kortum with two minutes left in the first period to get Hopkins on the scoreboard after surrendering five unanswered to the Skippers.

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Hopkins Michael Link scored the second period’s only goal as the Royals began taking advantage of Minnetonka’s penalties.

“It killed whatever momentum we had,” Urick said. “We’ve got to stay out of the box.”

Tanner Holmquist, Andrew Glover and Kyle Dalton scored three unanswered in a string of three minutes and seven seconds to bring the Royals within two, but a Skippers power-play empty netter put the kibosh on any Hopkins comeback.

Glover, Link and Holmquist each finished with one goal and one assist. Kortum had two assists on the night. Sophomore goaltender Sam Dalton stopped 28 shots.

Minnetonka goaltender Alex Glockner made 24 saves for the win. Lettieri, who has 32 points on the season, scored two goals and two assists for the Skippers. Coatta added two goals and one assist to his season total of 27 points on the season.

Hopkins moves to 0-5 in Lake Conference play and 10-11 overall. Minnetonka moves to 4-1 and 15-4-1 overall.

“They’re big and physical and they try to capitalize on your turnovers," Urick said of the Royals. "They’re having a hard time in the Lake Conference but they’re battling hard and you have to give them credit they haven’t given up.”

Hopkins will head to Buffalo for a non-conference game on Thursday.

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