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CL 5, St. Louis Park 2

The Wildcats finished off the regular season on a high note as they rolled over conference opponent St. Louis Park 5-2 Tuesday, January 30 at the St. Louis Park Rec Center.

The Wildcats played sluggishly in the first period, and neither team managed to get on the scoreboard. The Wildcats kicked it into high gear in the second period, and got some quick results. At the 4:16 mark, Morgan Baumgard carried the puck into the Oriole zone on a two-on-one with Rhiannon Sauter. Baumgard drove the net, and then slid a short pass across to Sauter. Sauter pushed it past the Oriole goalie to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead. Just over a minute later, Jessica Lorr used a low, hard shot to score on a rebound from Laura Greene's shot to put the Wildcats up 2-0.

St. Louis Park pulled within one at the 9:41 mark. The Wildcats got that one back on the power play less than a minute later. Ariel Novak passed the puck from the left point over to Sauter at the right point. Sauter walked to the high slot and ripped a slapshot that found the net to make it 3-1 Wildcats after two periods.

Baumgard squelched any hope of an Oriole comeback with a shorthanded goal just 23 seconds into the third period. Baumgard blocked an Oriole shot at her own blue line, picked up the puck, outraced the Oriole defense down the ice and drilled the puck into the upper right corner of the net.

Sam Lorr scored the Wildcats' final goal midway through the period. Sauter passed the puck from behind the Oriole net to Lorr in the corner. Lorr skated the puck to the corner of the net and slid it in to make the score 5-1. The Orioles added a goal with 20 seconds left in the game, making the final score Chisago Lakes 5, St. Louis Park 2.

"We did come out slow in the first period," said Wildcat head coach Jason Mahlen. "But we picked up the tempo and outplayed them after that. Sauter's first goal came from a textbook two-on-one between her and Baumgard. Sauter's second goal couldn't have come at a better time, less than a minute after St. Louis Park had pulled to within one. And Baumgard's shorthanded goal at the beginning of the third period kept the momentum on our side."

SCORING SUMMARY

Chisago Lakes 0 3 2-5

St. Louis Park 0 1 1-2

First Period

No scoring

Second Period

CL 1 Sauter (Baumgard) 3:16; CL 2 J. Lorr (Greene, K. Dobosenski) 4:32; SL 1 Sackrison (Bayers, Butts) 9:41; CL 3 Sauter (Novak) (pp) 10:29

Third Period

CL 4 Baumgard (sh) 0:23; CL 5 S. Lorr (Sauter) (pp) 9:27; SL 2 Sackrison (Beightol) 16:40

Saves: CL Pitzen 21, SL Evers 24

Section Preview

The Wildcats (9-14-2 overall, 7-6-1 conference), seeded seventh in Section 7AA, take on the second-seeded Cloquet Lumberjacks in the opening round of the section playoffs tonight at 7 p.m. at Cloquet.

The Wildcats lost to the Lumberjacks 1-0 earlier this season. "We match up pretty well with Cloquet," said Mahlen. "We played well against them earlier this season. They have a very good goalie and solid defense. We had several scoring opportunities - three breakaways, many shots from the slot -the last time we played them, and we need to capitalize on those opportunities this time. Cloquet is a tough atmosphere, but we know we've got a good shot at them."

If the Wildcats win tonight, they'll play a semifinal game Saturday, February 10 at Duluth's Mars Arena at 3:30 p.m. against the winner of the game between third-seeded Forest Lake and sixth-seeded Hermantown. The winner of that game will play for the Section 7AA championship next Thursday, February 15 at Isanti Ice Arena.

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