December 29, 2005 at 6:31 a.m.
Wildcat boys' hockey offense too much for Tri-City
Wildcat boys' hockey offense too much for Tri-City
On Tuesday, the Wildcat junior varsity had a 4-0 lead just six minutes in to the game against the St. Paul Saints (North Branch has no JV) when the power went out. When we learned that power wouldn’t be restored for a couple of hours, arena manager Chris Slettom sent everyone home. Both the junior varsity game and the varsity game were rescheduled for Friday, Feb. 10 at Chisago Lakes Arena.
After the delay against Tri-City, the Wildcats came out firing on all cylinders. When they scored three goals in a one-minute span early in the first period, the Tri-City goalie pulled himself from the game. The goalie change didn’t seem to make a difference as the Wildcats built their lead to 9-2 after two periods. Sophomore goalie Pat Fisher played in his first varsity game ever, replacing Tom Fitzer in the nets for the third period. Fisher didn’t allow any goals as the Wildcats went on to beat the Tigers 11-2.
Senior forward Jimmy Bergren led the Wildcats with five points on two goals and three assists. In fact, all three Bergren brothers – Jimmy, Terry and Jeremiah – got at least one point in the same varsity game for the first time. That included Jeremiah’s first-ever varsity point, an assist on Nick Bratrud’s third-period goal. Bratrud scored two goals, the first of Bratrud’s varsity hockey career at Chisago Lakes High School.
“This was an important game for us,” said Wildcat head coach Corey McKinnon, “It shows how much we’ve improved. We struggled to beat this team 8-6 last season and we handled them pretty easily this year. Last year, the players were getting used to new systems, forechecking assignments, and now they’re getting it down. One other thing I liked about this game was that the scoring was spread out – no one got more than two goals.”
The Wildcats (4-3-0 overall, 2-0-0 conference) are playing in the Blake Tournament this week, with all three games in the round-robin tourney starting at 5:30 p.m. The Wildcats were scheduled to take on Fargo North Wednesday, Dec. 27. This afternoon (Thursday, December 29) they’ll play the University School of Milwaukee. They’ll round out the tournament against the host team, Blake, on Friday, Dec. 30. “This is a much tougher tournament than the one we played in last year,” said McKinnon. “It will give us a chance to see where we’re at and where we need to go.”
Of special note....
The Chisago Lakes Arena board of directors has generously decided to donate all profits from concession sales for the Wildcat home game against Robbinsdale Cooper Thursday, January 5 to the Chisago Lakes Center Ice Club. The club raises funds to help support the boys and girls hockey teams at Chisago Lakes High School and will staff the concession stand for the evening. The goal of the teams, the arena and the Center Ice Club is to fill the arena and raise as much as possible to support the programs. All fans have to do to help out is to attend that night’s game, which starts at 7:30 p.m., and buy something from the concession stand.
Scoring Summary
Chisago Lakes 5 4 2 11
Tri-City 1 1 0 2
First Period
1) CL Haus (Baumgard) 3:02; 2) CL Angrimson ((Baumgard, Hoffman) 3:43; 3) CL Ji. Bergren (LeVasseur, T. Bergren) 4:02; 4) CL Baumgard (Stimson) 10:47; 1) TC Wentland (Hogan, Massey) (pp) 13:31; 5) CL Slagle (LeVasseur, Ji. Bergren) 13:50
Second Period
6) CL LeVasseur (Ji. Bergren, Slagle) 1:20; 7) CL Patterson (Haus, Jones) 4:32; 2) TC Ferguson (Demars, Raskovich) (pp) 6:57; 8) CL Bratrud (Ji. Bergren, Skoog) 7:33; 9) CL Ji. Bergren (Parenteau) (pp) 14:01
Third Period
10) CL Angrimson (LeVasseur, Liebsch) 1:40; 11) CL Bratrud (Je. Bergren) 6:30
Saves: CL Fitzer 14, Fisher 1; TC Massey 10, Felton 38
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