Joey Malugani and Isaiah Huber each scored twice to lift Rochester Century to a wild 6-5 victory over Owatonna on Jan. 9, an outcome that helped boost the Panthers to a likely Big 9 Conference title.
Expect the rematch to be just as exciting, as there’s the matter of Class 2A, Section 1 seeding positioning still to be determined.
Malugani, a senior, leads Century (16-4-1, 11-0-0) with 32 goals and 60 points. He’s scored at least one goal in each of his last 10 games for a Panthers team that ranks sixth in the state in scoring with 119 goals in 19 games.
Owatonna (15-4-0, 9-1-0) has won six of its last seven games. Huskies senior goalie Zach Wiese ranks among the state’s top 10 goaltenders with a 1.56 goals-against average and has a sparkling .924 save percentage.