Northfield Boys Hockey Eyes Possible Big Nine Title

The Northfield Raider boys hockey team is in first place in the Big Nine Conference with eight conference games left.

Northfield blanked Albert Lea 3-0 on Saturday at home to stay ahead of the red hot Rochester John Marshall Rockets by two points in the standings.

John Marshall has a nine-game winning streak and the Raiders have won six straight.

The Rockets defeated St. Paul Johnson 3-1 in a nonconference game in Rochester on Saturday.

The Raiders have the best power play in the Big Nine (35.8 percent) and leads the league in goals scored, averaging 5.25 per game.

John Marshall has allowed just 1.82 goals per game to lead the league in that category and has a 88.7 percent penalty kill to top the conference. Their power play is 26.7 percent and they are second in the league in scoring with 4.59 goals per game.

In Northfield's win Saturday they jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period with goals from Ryan Torbenson (13), assists to Jackson Cloud (12) and Grant Sawyer (8), and Connor Malecha (8) assists to Zakary Von Ruden (5) and Jack Fox (6).

Cloud added another goal (7) in the second period, assisted by Nathan Marek (5).

The Raiders were 1 for 3 on the power play and Albert Lea was 0 for 2.

Northfield outshot Albert Lea 47 to 19 and junior goalie Ryan Bielenberg recorded his third shutout of the season.

The Raiders host Rochester Century on Tuesday, Red Wing on Thursday and Austin on Saturday.

Six of their past eight games are at home, where they have lost just three games and  none in the conference .

Northfield finishes their season at home against Faribault the day before Valentine's Day.