---

The Wildcats easily dispatched three conference opponents last week. Playing at home, they trounced the Tri-City Stars 13-5 Tuesday, February 7. Jimmy Bergren’s five goals and one assist led the way. The Wildcats then vanquished the Vikings of North Branch 11-0 Friday, February 10, with Lance Baumgard getting a hat trick. And, in their final conference game of the season goalie Tom Fitzer recorded his school-record fourth shutout in one season as they crushed the Robbinsdale Cooper Hawks 6-0 at New Hope Arena Saturday, February 11.

The game against Tri-City contained a little suspense early on. The Wildcats led 5-2 after one period, but the Stars scored two goals to pull within two. This seemed to wake up the Wildcats, and they poured in four goals in the second period and matched that total in the third to win going away 13-5. In addition to Bergren’s five-goal outburst, Aaron Slagle had two goals and two assists to help lead the Wildcats to victory.

Junior John Wentland provided nearly all of the offense for the Stars, scoring four of the rive goals with some nifty skating, crafty puckhandling and deadly accurate shooting.

After beating North Branch 7-0 earlier this season, the Wildcats came away with an even more decisive victory last Friday. Lance Baumgard scored the third goal of his hat trick with just 37 seconds left in the game. Aaron Slagle had his second two-goal game in a row, and Jeremy Patterson also had two goals in the victory.

The Wildcats barely snuck by Cooper the last time the two teams played, but they dominated this one from the beginning. Baumgard hit a pipe just 10 seconds into the first period and the Wildcats scored four goals in the first period as they down the Cooper offense. Fitzer made 23 saves to earn his second straight shutout and fourth in the last five games. Luke Angrimson led the Wildcats with two goals and an assist, and Aaron Slagle continued his hot hand with a goal and two assists.

“The game against Tri-City taught us a good lesson,” said Wildcat head coach Corey McKinnon. “With a big lead early on we seemed to have lost a little respect for them, but then they cut the score to 5-4. I was proud that our guys kept their cool, held their ground and handled adversity well, as they’ve done all year.”

“We’re playing good hockey right now,” said McKinnon. “We’ve struggled against Cooper the last two times we played them, losing last year and barely beating them this year. But we really played well and dominated the game this time. It seems like things are starting to bounce the right way for us, but the kids have been working hard for every bounce they’re getting. I believe you create your own bounces. Some things appear to be lucky, but actually come from working hard and getting rewarded for it.”

“We are dealing with some injuries right now, but we’re ahead of last year. At that time, we dealt with injuries during the section playoffs. This time, sections are still a couple of weeks out. It gives us a chance to heal, and also gives us the chance to look at a few other players. Jeremiah Bergren, for example, has worked hard all year and has stepped in and showed us what he can do. He’s really taken advantage of the opportunity.”

“It was nice to see Tommy break the shutout record, too. And he had to stop quite a few shots in the Cooper game to get that fourth one. I look at shutouts as a team accomplishment. If all five of the other players are playing well defensively, it makes it easier on the goalie. I think our schedule sets up well going into the playoffs, as our last four regular season games get progressively tougher, leading up to our final game against Rochester, a top 20 team. And we’ve been taking advantage of the schedule, playing better each game.”

The Wildcats (14-8-2 overall, 9-3-1 conference) finish the regular season this week with two non-conference away games. They were scheduled to play Princeton at Princeton on Valentine’s Day. They’ll head all the way down to Rochester tonight, Thursday, February 16, to take on Rochester Lourdes at 7:30 p.m.

1 2 3 F

Tri-City 2 2 1 5

Chisago Lakes 5 4 4 13

First Period

1) CL Ji. Bergren (Stimson) 0:28; 1) TC Wentland (Ferguson) 6:21; 2) CL Haus (unassisted) 9:31; 3) CL Slagle (Hoffman, Angrimson) (pp) 11:27; 2) TC Wentland (unassisted) 12:00; 4) CL Baumgard (unassisted); 5) CL Parenteau (Slagle, Bergerson) 16:31

Second Period

3) TC Wentland (Hogan) 4:03; 4) TC Massey (unassisted) (pp) 7:02; 6) CL Ji. Bergren (unassisted) 13:24; 7) CL Stimson (unassisted) 13:54; 8) CL Ji. Bergren (Angrimson) 15:45; 9) CL Slagle (Ji. Bergren) 16:31

Third Period

10) CL Hoffman (unassisted) 5:47; 11) Baumgard (Stimson) 7:10; 12) CL Ji. Bergren (Slagle) 9:40; 13) CL Ji. Bergren (unassisted) 15:10; 5) TC Wentland (unassisted) 15:40

Saves: CL Fitzer 22; TC Massey 23, Felton 7

1 2 3 F

North Branch 0 0 0 0

Chisago Lakes 5 4 2 11

First Period

1) CL Patterson (Jones, Angrimson) 6:49; 2) CL Angrimson (unassisted) 7:09; 3) CL Patterson (unassisted) 14:53; 4) CL Baumgard (Liebsch) 15:41; 5) CL Slagle (Hoffman) 16:55

Second Period

6) CL Ji. Bergren (Parenteau) 0:32; 7) CL Baumgard (Ji. Bergren) 2:36; 8) CL Haus (Liebsch) (pp) 10:46; 9) CL Parenteau (Slagle) 11:48

Third Period

10) CL Slagle (Ji. Bergren) 13:49; 11) CL Baumgard (LeVasseur) 16:23

Saves: CL Fitzer 12; NB Lindberg 40

1 2 3 F

Chisago Lakes 4 2 0 6

Rob. Cooper 0 0 0 0

First Period

1) CL Slagle (Angrimson, Parenteau) 7:01 (pp); 2) CL Angrimson (unassisted) 7:28; 3) CL Jones (Slagle, Angrimson) (pp) 10:07; 4) CL Angrimson (Slagle)

Second Period

5) CL Baumgard (Liebsch) 4:51; 6) Ji. Bergren (unassisted) 12:45

Third Period

No scoring

Saves: CL Fitzer 23, SL Venne 22

---