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Breck 5, Chisago Lakes 2

Second period goals by Nick Bratrud and Andy Slagle cut the 3-0 Breck lead to one, but that's all the scoring the Wildcats could muster as they lost to the Mustangs 5-2 Thursday, December 13 at Chisago Lakes Arena.

SCORING SUMMARY

Breck 3 0 2-5

Chisago Lakes 0 2 0-2

1st Period

BR 1 Born (Weingraden) 6:21; BR 2 Morin(Richkamp, Sundquist) (pp) 9:54; BR 3 Fulton (Richkamp) 10:41

2nd Period

CL 1 Bratrud (Skoog) (pp) 12:01; CL 2 Slagle (Lushanko) 15:16

3rd Period

BR 4 Morin (Richkamp) 10:33; BR 5 Borer (unassisted) (empty net) 16:33

Saves: CL Krumm 28, BR Russell 22

CL 7, Cambridge-Isanti 2

Sophomore forward Tommy Johnson and senior forward DJ Haus scored two goals apiece to lead the Wildcats to a 7-2 victory over the Cambridge-Isanti Bluejackets Saturday, December 15 at Isanti Arena. The Wildcats blew open a close game with four goals in the third period. The Bluejackets helped the Wildcat cause by taking nine straight penalties, including a five-minute major for high-sticking, in the second and third periods.

Senior forward Andy Slagle opened the scoring early with a goal three minutes into the first period, assisted by junior defenseman Cale Arhart. The Bluejackets tied it on a shorthanded goal at the 11:03 mark. On the power play less than a minute later, sophomore Matt Petersen carried the puck into the Bluejacket zone, down the right boards, skated around the defense to the slot and fired a quick slapshot past the Bluejacket goalie into the net. Nick Bratrud assisted on the goal that put the Wildcats back up by one. Cambridge tied it again late in the period to make it 2-2 going into the second period.

Haus put the Wildcats ahead to stay with the only goal of the second period, assisted by Johnson. Johnson then scored his first goal at 7:22 of the third period, assisted by Slagle.

The Wildcats really poured it on against a tired, dispirited group of Bluejackets at the end of the game. With two-and-a-half minutes to go, Slagle carried the puck to the Bluejacket net on a semi-breakaway. The Bluejacket goalie poked the puck out to the blue line, but ended up way out of position. Senior forward Jeremiah Bergren stopped the puck at the blue line and fired a slapshot off the crossbar and into a wide-open net to make the score 5-2.

Haus's second goal came on a delayed penalty with just over a minute remaining, assisted by Johnson and freshman forward Andrew Habel. Johnson put an exclamation point on the win with 26 seconds remaining with a power play goal, assisted by his linemates Haus and Habel.

The Wildcats outshot the Bluejackets 44-17 for the game, and senior goalie Pat Fisher registered 15 saves for the win.

"We started Pat Fisher in the nets for this game," said Wildcat head coach Corey McKinnon, "because he had success against Cambridge when we scrimmaged them earlier this season. Pat got the green light, went out and did a good job.

"When Cambridge was taking all those penalties," continued McKinnon, "our guys held their discipline and it worked out well for us on the ice."

McKinnon then talked about a couple of his players. "Tommy Johnson works so hard and wants it so bad," he said. "Combine that with his talent and his passion for the game, and it's good to see he was rewarded like that. That's the kind of play we're looking for. And DJ Haus has really been picking up his play. He looks to attack any chance he can get. Even though we were outplaying them, Cambridge was still hanging with us in the second period. DJ scored the go-ahead goal. That goal gave us a little breathing room and opened the door for us to pour it on. And that's what we did in the third period."

SCORING SUMMARY

Chisago Lakes 2 1 4-7

Cambridge-Isanti 2 0 0-2

1st Period

CL 1 Slagle (Arhart) 3:12; CA 14 (15) (sh) 11:03; CL 2 Petersen (Bratrud) (pp) 11:50 CA 2 14 (15, 17) 15:04

2nd Period

CL 3 Haus (Johnson) 7:04

3rd Period

CL 4 Johnson (Slagle) 7:22; CL 5 Bergren (Slagle) 14:31; CL6 Haus (Habel, Johnson) (delayed penalty) 15:41; CL 7 Johnson (Haus, Habel) (pp) 16:34

Saves: CL Fisher 15, CA Geis 37

Robbinsdale Cooper 2, CL 1

The Wildcats have had a pretty easy time of it when playing the Robbinsdale Cooper Hawks the past few years. But, a lack of intensity did them in as they were upset by the Hawks 2-1 at New Hope Ice Arena Tuesday, December 18.

The Wildcats scored their only goal of the game after trailing 2-0 midway through the second period. Senior Jeremiah Bergren passed the puck to Andrew Habel behind the Cooper net. Habel fired it to senior Trevor Nowack in the slot, and Nowack ripped a hard shot into the back of the net to close the gap to 2-1. Despite outshooting the Hawks 31-18 for the game, the Wildcats couldn't manage to put another puck in the net.

"It was a perfect storm of a bad game," said Wildcat head coach Corey McKinnon. "Combine a lack of intensity, a lack of respect for the other team, suspect officiating, four players not feeling well and the inability to finish and this is what happens. We didn't finish on a breakaways and we hit a couple of posts. Even though some things were out of our hands, we could have controlled the lack of respect and intensity and maybe the outcome would have been different. As coaches, we have to work to correct those issues."

"On Trevor's goal, he shot the puck like he wanted to shoot it through the back of the net," continued McKinnon. "In a game like this when their goalie is seeing the puck really well, sometimes you should shoot the puck harder - try to shoot it through the goalie - and see if something good happens."

SCORING SUMMARY

Chisago Lakes 0 1 0-1

Robbinsdale Cooper 1 1 0-2

1st Period

RC 1 Crandall (Morgen, Frisk) (pp) 2:25

2nd Period

RC 2 Herkal Unassisted) 6:53; CL 1 Nowack (Habel, Bergren) 8:45

Saves: CL Krumm 16, RC Bajari 30.

St. Francis 2, Chisago Lakes 1

The Wildcats ran into a hot goaltender against St. Francis Friday, December 21 at East Bethel Arena. St. Francis goalie Andy Benik stopped 34 of 35 Wildcat shots as the Fighting Saints beat the Wildcats 2-1 in overtime.

Both teams scored in the second period. For the Wildcat goal, Jon Lien picked up the puck at the point. He skated along the blue line toward the center and fired a shot through traffic and into the net. The game remained tied through three periods, then the Fighting Saints scored the winner in overtime.

"Our forwards were doing everything but putting the puck in the net," said Wildcat head coach Corey McKinnon. "They just weren't finishing. We outplayed St. Francis, outshot them and got good goaltending, but our shots either hit the goalie's stomach, his pads or some iron."

Totino Grace 4, CL 1

The Wildcats battled conference rival Totino Grace evenly for most of the game. But, if you went to get a hot dog and a Coke early in the second period, you missed the sequence that changed the game from a nail-biter to a relatively easy victory - the Eagles scored three goals on three straight shots in a 90-second span. That was all they needed to beat the Wildcats 4-1 Saturday, January 5 at Chisago Lakes Arena.

The Eagles swarmed over the Wildcats in the first period, but intense play by the defense and goalie Tyler Krumm kept the game scoreless after one period. The Wildcats nearly went up 1-0 in the first period, but a beautiful shot from the left circle with four minutes remaining clanked off the left post and ricocheted harmlessly away.

It looked like the Wildcats had killed off a penalty early in the second period. But, the Eagles scored just as the penalty expired and led 1-0 at the 3:21 mark. With the Wildcats still reeling from the first goal, the Eagles scored again just 23 seconds later. Totino scored on their next shot too, at the 4:52 mark.

The Wildcats settled down after the third goal, and actually ended up outshooting the Eagles 14-13 for the period. But the Eagles added another goal midway through the period to take a 4-0 lead after two.

Cale Arhart broke the shutout with four minutes left in the third period, assisted by Nick Bratrud. The goal was all the offense the Wildcats could muster as they lost to the Eagles 4-1.

"Our goal is to play well for 51 minutes every game," said Wildcat head coach Corey McKinnon, "and we only played for 48 minutes tonight. When you have a three-minute lapse against a high-caliber team like Totino Grace, they'll make you pay. Our guys responded and we won the third period, but the hole we dug for ourselves was a little too big.

"As a team, we try to focus on being mentally tough. Our mental lapses tonight were the result of physical fatigue. Sometimes players take shortcuts or take a shift off because they're tired. We're going to have to hone in on conditioning levels to get ready for the rest of the season. Since we're not a very big team, we've got to be able to outskate other teams. We've got a lot of tough games left this season, and we've got to be ready to play for all 51 minutes."

SCORING SUMMARY

Totino Grace 0 4 0-4

Chisago Lakes 0 0 1-1

1st Period

No scoring.

2nd Period

TG 1 DeLisle (unassisted) (pp) 3:21; TG 2 Heck (Gunderson) 3:44; TG 3 Schlagel (Fust, Marshall) 4:52; TG 4 N. Nagel (Graffunder, M. Nagel) 10:45

3rd Period

CL 1 3:58 Arhart (N. Bratrud) 3:58

Save: CL Krumm 29, TG Theiler 23

The Wildcats host conference powerhouse Benilde-St. Margaret's tonight, Thursday, January 10, at Chisago Lakes Arena at 7 p.m. Saturday, they'll play another conference opponent, Irondale, at 2 p.m. at the Schwan's Super Rink in Blaine.

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