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Led by a school-record six – yes, SIX! – goals and one assist from senior forward Lance Baumgard and five assists from junior center Scott Liebsch, the Chisago Lakes Wildcats won the first game of the Bob Nelson Holiday Classic played Dec. 28-30 at Blake Arena. The 8-2 win was over the Fargo North Spartans. The Wildcats lost game two of the round-robin tournament 6-0 to the University School of Milwaukee. They rebounded to play nearly even with the highly ranked Blake Bears, losing 2-1 on a goal in the third period.

Chisago Lakes 8, Fargo North 2

The game against Fargo stayed tight for two periods. With the Wildcats trailing 1-0 in the first period, Liebsch hit Luke Angrimson with a pass in the right circle. Angrimson passed to Baumgard who fired a shot high over the goalie’s shoulder into the upper left corner of the net to tie the game at one. Fargo scored again before the end of the period to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

The Wildcats scored the only two goals of the second period. At the 4:31 mark, Liebsch fired the puck from behind the Fargo net to a charging Bob LeVasseur. LeVasseur ripped a shot on the fly from the bottom of the right circle and the rebound caromed to a waiting Baumgard, who slammed it home to tie the game at two. Later in the period, the Wildcats took advantage of a Fargo blunder to take the lead. Fargo dumped the puck into the Wildcat zone and went for a complete line change. Wildcat defenseman Zack Stimson, who had three assists for the game, quickly corralled the puck and fired it to Baumgard waiting at the Fargo blue line. Baumgard and Luke Angrimson went in 2-on-0. Baumgard deked the goalie and flipped a backhander into the net to give the Wildcats the lead for good.

The Wildcats poured it on in the third period. Junior forward Aaron Slagle scored first on what was described by Wildcat fan Bruce Haus as a “spin-o-rama, no-look backhand shot” after the puck came out of a scrum in front of the Fargo net. Baumgard and Jimmy Bergren were credited with assists on the play. Baumgard scored shorthanded on another backhand shot to give the Wildcats a 5-2 lead. With the Wildcats two men short, Fargo pulled its goalie to give itself a 6-on-3 advantage. After they got one of the two men back, the Wildcats got control of the puck and Baumgard shot it into the open net for his second shorthanded goal in a row. Baumgard later scored on a rebound of a Jake Parenteau shot from the point and on a point-blank one-timer on a feed by Liebsch. That made the final score Chisago Lakes 8, Fargo North 2.

“Even though we only had two days of practice after the holidays,” said Wildcat head coach Corey McKinnon, “our good conditioning and Lance’s hot stick turned the score from 3-2 to 8-2 in one period. That’s why we work as hard as we do in practice. As for Lance, every once in a while, things go your way and you make all the right decisions. He worked hard to get free and put himself right where he needed to.”

Baumgard’s six goals broke the school record of five goals in one game, set by Josh Schlipp during the 1996-1997 season.

University School of Milwaukee 6, Chisago Lakes 0

Chisago came out tentatively in their game against Milwaukee, falling behind 5-0 after one period. The Wildcats’ play improved considerably after that, but they couldn’t get on the scoreboard and lost by a final score of 6-0.

“As odd as it sounds,” said McKinnon, “we drew a lot of positives from this game. We were not ready to play at the beginning. I think we were a bit intimidated, knowing Milwaukee had beaten a top team like Blake. We mentally put them in a class too far ahead of us. We made some adjustments after that and didn’t give up a lot of shots after the first period. We knew we could skate with them and that helped us to prepare for the Blake game.”

Blake 2, Chisago Lakes 1

The Wildcats game against fourth-ranked Blake was, as McKinnon put it, “well played by both teams.”

Blake, who outshot the Wildcats 38-23 for the game, scored the only goal of the first period. The Wildcats tied it at 6:45 of the second. Lance Baumgard curled out from behind the Blake net with a loose puck. The goalie went for a fake and a patient Baumgard shot the puck into the open net from point blank range to make the score 1-1. Wildcat goalie Tom Fitzer made several big saves during the game, including a second-period stick save after a pass across the slot left him leaning the wrong way and a pad save on a breakaway early in the third period. The game stayed tied until the 5:33 mark of the third period, when Blake put in a rebound to go ahead.

“Our players made the adjustment from the previous game,” said McKinnon. “They didn’t put Blake on a pedestal. We showed that we’re fast enough and skilled enough to play with anybody. Zack Stimson did a nice job all three games. He really made himself noticed. Our penalty killing units did well, too. They didn’t allow a power play goal during the entire tournament. And Tommy Fitzer had a great game against Blake – it was probably his best game as a Wildcat.

“Before this weekend we hoped we could play with the top teams. Now we know we can. We’re starting to see where we’re at and what we need to do to get the section title and be one of top teams in state.”

Wildcats Baumgard, Stimson, Jimmy Bergren and Liebsch were named to the all-tournament team.

The Wildcats (5-5-0 overall, 2-0-0 conference) return to conference play this week, hosting Robbinsdale Cooper tonight (Thursday, Jan 5) at 7:30 p.m. and ninth-ranked St. Louis Park at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7. Both games will be played at Chisago Lakes Arena.

CHISAGO LAKES BOYS’ HOCKEY LINE SCORES – Dec. 28-30



1 2 3 F

Fargo North 2 0 0 2

Chisago Lakes 1 2 5 8

Scoring

First Period

1) FN Fischer (Sheridan, Klenow) 4:02; 1) CL Baumgard (Stimson, Liebsch) 6:55; 2) FN Klein (Bombenger) 13:26

Second Period

2) CL Angrimson (Liebsch, LeVasseur) 4:31; 3) CL Baumgard (Stimson) 12:44

Third Period

4) CL Slagle (Ji. Bergren, Baumgard) (pp) 1:32; 5) CL Baumgard (Liebsch, Stimson) (sh) 8:07; 6) CL Baumgard (Parenteau, Liebsch) (sh) 12:36; 7) CL Baumgard (Slagle, Parenteau) 13:26; 8) Baumgard (Angrimson, Liebsch) 16:18

Saves: CL Fitzer 22, FN Zehren 32

1 2 3 F

Chisago Lakes 0 0 0 0

Milwaukee 5 0 1 6

Scoring

First Period

1) MI Burns (McEnerney, Bartlett) 0:21; 2) MI Wigdale (Fritz, Bartlett) 2:08; 3) MI Fritz (Graf, Bartlett) 7:35; 4) MI Burns (Bartlett) 10:30; 5) Holmes (McEnerney, Burns) 13:30

Second Period

No scoring

Third Period

6) MI Holmes (Burns, McMinn) 6:04

Saves: CL Fitzer 18, MI Jurken 23

1 2 3 F

Chisago Lakes 0 1 0 1

Blake 1 0 1 2

Scoring

First Period

1) BL Louwerse (Johnson, Barnes) 11:08

Second Period

1) CL Baumgard (unassisted) 6:45

Third Period

6) BL Leathers (Policinski) 5:33

Saves: CL Fitzer 36, BL Patterson 22

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