Faribault Sets Up Showdown With Mankato West

The Faribault Falcons boys hockey team defeated the Winona Winhawks on Thursday night 4-1 to set up a showdown for the Big Nine title Saturday in Mankato.

The Falcons looked disinterested in taking a 1-0 lead in the first period. The second period was shaping up the same way until at 12:41 Austin Dickey scored his sixth goal of the season after a fine pass from Josh Nawrocki, his fifth assist, and Alex Dunn collected his sixth assist of the season. After that goal, Faribault appeared to have more energy and got a Christian Von Ruden goal assisted by Ryan Teske with :26 seconds to go in the period. It was Von Ruden's 24th goal of the year.

Connor Lipinski tallied an unassisted shorthanded goal at 8:58 of the third period to complete the Falcon scoring. It was Lipinski's first goal of the season. Senior Chase Batchelder was in net for Faribault and had his shutout spoiled with a Winhawk goal off a face-off after a Faribault penalty at 12:21 of the third period. Tyler Becker had his 17th goal of the season on Faribault's first goal of the night, with assists for Jake Battles and Ryan Teske. Teske, Batchelder and Lipinski were our Faribault State Farm Insurance Agents Faribault players of the game.

The Falcons outshot Winona 35-20. Faribault had seven penalties and Winona had three. Faribault is now 16-4-1 and 13-3 in the Big Nine and Winona fell to 3-14 in league play and 4-19 overall. Mankato West edged Albert Lea 2-1 to stay three points in front of Faribault in the standings. Both teams have 13 points in league play. The Falcons are at Mankato West on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. and Faribault head coach Dean Weasler says it's exciting to be able to decide their own fate.

In other Big Nine games, Northfield defeated Owatonna 3-1, Rochester Mayo skated by John Marshall 5-1 and Century bested Austin 4-2. In addition to Faribault's game with Mankato West on Saturday, Albert Lea is at Owatonna at 7:30 p.m., Austin at Mankato East at 1 p.m., Simley at Century at 3 p.m. and Red Wing at Mankato East at 7:30 p.m.