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St. Francis/North Branch 4, Chisago Lakes/Pine City 2

Tied with the Wildcats 1-1 after the first period, SFNB blew the game open with three goals in the second period on their way to a 4-2 win over the Wildcats Thursday, January 17 at East Bethel Ice Arena.

SFNB's Hayley Schmid scored at 3:35 of the first period to put SFNB up 1-0. Brandi Usher and Nicole Miller picked up assists on the play. The Wildcats came right back with a goal of their own less than a minute later. Jessica Lorr, standing near the right sideboards in the SFNB zone, passed the puck toward the front of the net. Ashley Elumba tipped the puck past goalie Nicole Bredahl and into the net to tie the score at 1-1.

SFNB took the lead for good just over a minute into the second period. Olivia Zebro scored her first goal of the game, assisted by Schmid and Justine Herlofsky. Halfway through the period, Justine Bell scored her first varsity goal, assisted by Kelly Kotowicz, to put SFNB up by 2. Zebro added an unassisted goal a few minutes later to make the score 4-1 going into the third period.

The Wildcats' Shannon Segarra scored the only goal of the third period out of a scrum in front of the SFNB net, with Ashley Gibson picking up the assist. It was all the Wildcats could manage, making the final score SFNB 4, Chisago Lakes/Pine City 2.

Nicole Bredahl stopped 15 of 17 shots to earn the win for SFNB.

"The story of this game comes down to one word," said Wildcat head coach Jason Mahlen, "Breakaways. They scored on their two breakaways and their goalie stopped both of ours."

SCORING SUMMARY

Chisago Lakes/PC 1 0 1-2

St. F/North Branch 1 3 0-4

1st Period

SF 1 Schmid (Usher, Miller) 3:35; CL 1 Elumba (J. Lorr) 4:19

2nd Period

SF 2 Zebro (Schmid, Herlofsky) 1:23; SF 3 Bell (Kotowicz) 8:32; SF 4 Zebro (unassisted) 12:23

3rd Period

CL 2 Segarra (A. Gibson) 10:16

Saves: CL Pitzen 13, SF Bredahl 15

Spring Lake Park 4, CL/PC 1

Nothing seemed to go right for the Wildcats as Spring Lake Park scored four goals in the first period on a breakaway, a shot that took some strange bounces, and two bad-angle shots. The Wildcats recovered to outplay the Panthers over the last two periods, but managed just one goal as they lost to the Panthers 4-1 Saturday, January 19 at Fogerty Arena.

Ariel Novak's goal with less than two minutes remaining in the game spoiled the Panthers' bid for a shutout. Laura Greene had the puck behind the Panthers' goal line and fed Novak in the low slot. Novak one-timed it into the net. But it was too little, too late for the Wildcats.

Wildcat head coach Jason Mahlen remains optimistic. "Even though we've hit a rough patch," said Mahlen, "the girls still seem to be having fun. And, as coaches, we can see that the girls are working hard, giving us their top effort in practice. Hopefully, we can regain our momentum for the last few games leading up to the section tournament."

SCORING SUMMARY

Chisago Lakes/PC 0 0 1-1

Spring Lake Park 4 0 0-4

1st Period

SLP 1 Spaniol (unassisted) 3:15; SLP 2 Jones (Young, Zurbey) 7:01; SLP 3 Jochum (unassisted) (sh) 8:35; SLP 4 Young (unassisted) 15:09

2nd Period

No scoring

3rd Period

CL 1 Novak (Greene), 15:09

Saves: CL/PC Pitzen 20; SLP Bassett 24

The Wildcats will play three games this week. They were scheduled to face powerful Benilde-St. Margaret's Tuesday, January 22 at Chisago Lakes Arena. They'll stay home to host Irondale Tonight, Thursday, January 24. And, this Saturday they'll head to Hermantown Hockey Arena to take on Proctor at 2 p.m.

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