Prep athletes of the week: Forest Lake goalie Ally Goehner leads her pumped teammates to big win

The junior goaltender recognized quickly that her Forest Lake teammates were ready Thursday.

The foe was Andover, which had spent time atop the Class 2A rankings this season. The Huskies had ended Forest Lake's state tournament hopes in the Class 2A, Section 7 finals a year ago. It was a matchup the Rangers had eagerly anticipated.

"I could tell right away in warmups," Goehner said. "We were pumped but not too pumped. We were just having fun."

That fun became a 1-0 victory, with Goehner stopping 30 shots. It was her second consecutive shutout, after blanking White Bear Lake 4-0 two nights earlier.

Forest Lake scored midway through the second period, then leaned on the cat-quick reflexes of Goehner to stymie the talented Huskies.

"When they scored I said, 'OK, it's time for me to keep my head in the game.' I wasn't going to give them anything," Goehner said.

She weathered a 17-shot barrage from Andover in the third period, capping a game that she confirmed was her best performance ever. "I think so," Goehner said. "It didn't hit me until I got to the locker room and started thinking, 'Wow. We just beat Andover.' It was super exciting."

The senior goalkeeper improved to 7-0 on the season with big games against two top-flight opponents. He made 26 saves in a 4-0 shutout of Blake and stopped 23 of 25 shots as the defending Class 2A champion defeated Moorhead 5-2.

On Dec. 8, the senior guard broke the school single-game scoring record with 45 points in the Titans' 74-67 loss to Edina. He followed that effort with 22 points in a victory over Elk River and 21 points in a victory over Andover.

The eighth-grade goalie stopped 84 of 86 shots in a four game stretch. She held No. 1-ranked Warroad of Class 1A to one goal in 1-0 loss. She shut out Hastings and St. Paul/Henry Sibley in consecutive games and backstopped a 1-1 tie with Class 2A, No. 10 Hill-Murray.

The junior forward posted back-to-back double-doubles, recording 18 points and 15 rebounds in a 50-19 victory over Visitation, then 22 points, 17 rebounds, four steals and three blocks in beating Grand Rapids 67-59.

A week after scoring her 1,000th career point, the senior guard scored 18 points in a 79-51 victory over St. Cloud Tech. Then she hit five of eight three-point attempts en route to a career-high 41 points in a 67-44 victory over Brainerd.