Rebels girls get on a 7-1 hot streak

After a 0-4 start, the Moose Lake Area girls hockey team has gone on a roll and won seven of their last eight games to improve to 10-7 overall. That streak includes impressive wins over Duluth and a pair of wins over perennial Class A power Hibbing-Chisholm.

“We have seven new girls that came up from 12U this year, so I think they needed to adjust to the faster pace of the high school league,” said Rebels head coach Reilly Fawcett. “We had a tough time scoring in the first couple of games, so that was an emphasis in our practices and it started to show in our games. Once the younger girls started to settle in their roles, we started to find our chemistry within the team.”

Adding to the slow start was the loss of the leading scorer from a year ago due to injury.

“Sandra Ribich is out for this season due to injury so we have had to rely on the other girls to generate offense,” Fawcett said. “Our juniors and seniors have a great amount of experience playing together, which helps the team chemistry. We have relied a lot on Jorja Jusczak, Gracie Hartl and Hallie Klavu to produce numbers for us and they have done just that.”

The Rebels have one of the top goalies in the northern part of the state.

“Mallory Hartl has played in every single game this season and has a save percentage of .943,” Fawcett said. “She has been incredible for us this whole season and she is a huge part of our success. We are able to play a little more aggressively against certain teams because we know Mallory will be solid in nets for us.”

The team also has a ninth grade goalie, Piper Genereau, who is learning from Hartl and aims to help the program in the future, the coach added.

On the blue line, the Rebels have some top-notch defenders with a ton of experience.

“We have a wide range of defensemen from seniors to eighth graders, but all play crucial roles,” Fawcett said. “Our top defensemen, Hallie Klavu, has been rock solid for us this season. She is an offensive defensemen who sees the ice well and a player that we rely heavily on both defensively and offensively. Our two senior defensemen, Lily Kahara and Katie Metzer, have also been great for us. Kahara is a stay at home defensemen and Metzer is an offensive defensemen. Both bring valuable skill to our blue line.”

At this point, the Rebels hope to continue their current roll over the second half of the season.