Earlier tonight the Northland Pines girls hockey team hosted the Waupaca Co-op for a Great Northern Conference matchup. When they played each other earlier in the season, Waupaca won the game 5-3.

The Eagles definitely had the game in the back of their mind as they went into the game aggressive and ready to win. Emily Saltenberger went and put the Eagles up on the scoreboard 5 minutes into the game, with an assist by Cali Sanborn.

Allison Sauvola made the puck fly into the back of the net past Cassie Rasmussen 10 minutes later with assists going to Sanborn and Saltenberger. The Comets didn’t like being down by two goals and cut the Eagles lead 2-1 with a goal by Katerina Otter.

As the time was running out for the first period, Kali Ebert scored to put the Eagles up 3-1 going into the second period of the game.

Cali Sanborn shot the puck from the circles but was denied by Rasmussen. Jamie Slattery picked up the rebound and skated the puck down the ice before slipping the puck past Jenna Paez. Less than a minute later, Markie Ash had help from Brianne Huettner to tie up the game with three goals each.

Cali Sanborn brought the puck to the net but Allison Sauvola picked up the puck to put the home team back on top. Waupaca’s Mandy Tomlinson was assessed an unsportsmanlike penalty at the time of the goal.

Anna Hartwig shot the puck from the circles and was initially denied by the Waupaca netminder but Allyson Sima found the empty side of the net to give the Eagles a 5-3 lead at the start of the third period.

Two minutes into the final period Cali Sanborn ripped the puck through Cassie Rasmussen's legs. Mandy Tomlinson stuffed the puck between the pipe and Paez’s legs over halfway into the period, bringing the score to 6-4.

Both teams made attempts to get another goal that saw both Paez and Rasmussen diving for the puck but neither team was successful. Waupaca pulled their goalie to give them an extra attacker during the last minutes of the game.

A penalty was called with less than two minutes left on the clock against Cali Sanborn but Waupaca wasn’t able to capitalize on the opportunity, allowing Pines to deliver Waupaca only their second loss of the season.