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Chisago Lakes 8, St. Francis 6

It was the perfect storm. A crowded noisy arena, the top scorer in the state and two highly motivated teams playing for pride and momentum. And, sure enough, the game wasn't over until Ory Burggraff scored an empty net goal with 29 seconds left in the game to give the Wildcats a two-goal lead. Burggraff's goal allowed the Wildcat players, fans and coaches breathe a collective sigh of relief that they had dodged a bullet named Joey Benik (the aforementioned top scorer in the state) and come away with an 8-6 win.

Benik made his presence known right away. St. Francis won the opening faceoff and the puck ended up on Benik's stick in the defensive zone. Benik came down on the wing, cut hard to the middle and beat Wildcat goaltender Ben Bratrud with a quick hard snapshot to give St. Francis a 1-0 lead just 21 seconds into the first period.

But the Wildcats answered less than a minute later, and it was on. Cole DuBose got picked up a pass from Brett Lizotte behind the St. Francis net. DuBose centered it right onto Andrew Habel's stick out front and Habel quickly drilled it into the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1.

At the 6:55 mark, there was a lot of traffic in front of the Wildcat net. Just as Bratrud came out to knock the puck away, it trickled onto the wrong guy's stick and Benik put it away for a 2-1 lead.

Later in the period, Tommy Johnson started to show his stuff, as well. He gloved a high pass from Brett Lizotte right in front of the net. In what seemed like one motion, Johnson dropped the puck to his feet and whacked it into the net past surprised Andy Benik to tie the game at 2-2. Benik is Joey Benik's twin brother and is one of the top goaltenders in the state.

The Fighting Saints took advantage of a Wildcat defensive mistake to take a 3-2 lead with less than two minutes remaining in the first period. Sitting behind and to the left of the Wildcat net, a Wildcat defenseman tried to make a pass through the crease out to a Wildcat player near the blue line. But he mostly whiffed on the pass attempt and the puck slid out to a spot just a few feet in front of the Wildcat net. A St. Francis player pounced on the puck and drove it home right away to give the Fighting Saints a 3-2 lead after one period.

The second period was all Wildcats. Just 50 seconds into the period, Lizotte picked up a loose puck, came into the zone off his off wing, pulled the puck to his forehand and ripped it into the upper right hand corner to tie the game at 3-3. Burggraff gave the Wildcats their first lead of the night at 6:55. He came in off the right wing to the right circle and ripped a shot into the far upper left corner of the net. The puck hit pipe, crossbar and then the back of the net. And just 18 seconds later, defenseman Matt Petersen ripped a slapshot that hit Andy Benik in the stick shoulder. Instead of rebounding, the puck rolled up and over Benik's shoulder and trickled behind him into the net to put the Wildcats up by two.

Later in the period, Petersen scored another goal that was eerily similar to the first one. On the power play, Johnson fed the puck to Petersen in the middle right out by the blue line. Petersen ripped a slapshot that hit Benik and somehow went through him and trickled in to put the Wildcats up 6-3.

The Saints struck on the power play just two minutes into the third period. Benik worked the puck in deep near the left side of the net and sent it across to the right circle. His teammate quickly one-timed it into the het to cut the Wildcat lead to 6-4. At the 7:34 mark, the Wildcats heard from Benik again. He carried the puck into the Wildcat zone one-on-one against a defender. Benik slid the puck between the defenseman's legs, grabbed it on the other side and shot from close range Bratrud got a piece of it, but the puck rolled into the net to pull the Fighting Saints to within one.

Tommy Johnson's second goal of the game was a highlight film all by itself. Johnson pulled the puck from behind the left side of the net and ripped a 20 foot shot from just a few feet in front of the goal line. It looked like Andy Benik had the net well-covered, but the puck found a 3 inch space past Benik and inside the upper right hand corner to once again give the Wildcats a two-goal lead.

The Wildcats took a penalty with two minutes left in the third period and the Fighting Saints pulled the goalie. Just 30 seconds later, the ubiquitous Benik wove the puck in down the right side, and passed it through the slot. His teammate one-timed a high shot under the crossbar to cut the lead to one.

Bratrud came up with a big save on Benik with just over a minute left in the game. With about 35 seconds left, Bratrud made another big save and Burggraff pick up the rebound. He skated to center ice, a little to the left of center, and slid a shot toward the net. The roar of the crowd told you all you needed to know as the puck slid across the goal line to seal the Wildcats entertaining 8-6 win.

Benik played all 17 minutes of the third period for the Fighting Saints and generally hung around the red line, with a Wildcat player shadowing him, waiting for a pass to come out of the zone so he could create something. It seemed to work well, but a couple of nice save by Bratrud and a couple of shots that hit the pipe kept Benik from bringing his team all the way back.

"We showed a lot of mental toughness in this game," said Wildcat head coach Corey McKinnon. "We knew Benik was going to be tough to stop, and then he scored 20 seconds into the game. Last year, we might have folded. This year, we didn't worry about it, turned around and answered right away. Our attitude is 'so be it, but we're still going to play our game'. Also, our guys scored some nice goals against a very good goaltender."

McKinnon also talked about how his team responded to Cory Lushanko's season-ending injury. "Our guys are real tight and respect each other," he said. "It's not something we wanted to have to face. It's like we lost a member of our family, even though he's still here with us on the bench. But our guys have really stepped it up and scored goals when we needed them to."



Chisago Lakes 4, Robbinsdale Cooper 0

The atmosphere for game between the Wildcats and the Robbinsdale Cooper Hawks and Saturday, January 9 couldn't have been more different than the atmosphere for t game against St. Francis. New Hope Arena was nearly empty, the Wildcats were emotionally spent and they were playing a lesser opponent. But they managed to do what they needed to do, beating the Hawks 4-0 to improve their overall record to 8-4-0 (2-2-0 conference).

The Wildcats scored late in the first period after killing off a four-minute shorthanded situation. From inside the Wildcat zone, DJ Edstrom passed the puck out toward Andrew Habel at the red line. Andrew beat a Copper defenseman to the puck and chipped it by him, creating a breakaway. Habel raced into the zone and went to his backhand for the shot. The goalie slowed the puck down and one of the Cooper defenseman tried to sweep it away but knocked it into the net instead with two seconds left in the period.

Early in the second period, Habel got the puck in neutral zone and threw a no look pass to Cole DuBose streaking down the right side semi breakaway. Veering around the defense, DuBose snapped it by the goalie's right side to put the Wildcats up 2-0. A few minutes later, a forechecking Jeff Sargeant found himself with the puck in the slot. All in one motion, he moved the puck from his backhand to his forehand and got off a quick shot, zipping it by the goalie before he know what hit him.

DuBose scored his second goal of the game just over a minute into the third period. Johnson ripped a slapshot from just inside the blue lie. DuBose went flying toward the net, got his stick on the rebound and one-timed it under the goalie's legs and into the net from just below the hashmarks, making the final score Chisago Lakes 4, Cooper 0.

"There was no flow in that game," said Wildcat head coach Corey McKinnon. "There were a lot of bad penalty calls both ways and we were emotionally drained from Thursday. But we got out of there with a win, something we haven't been able to do for a couple of years, and we're happy with that. We again showed some mental toughness by doing enough to win even when you don't have your "A" game. We got solid play out of our goalie, Kyle Buchanan, and our defense. We killed off all ten Cooper power plays."

Buchanan stopped all 23 shots he faced to earn his first shutout of the season.

The Wildcats will take on St. Lois Park this Saturday at 7 p.m. the St. Louis Park Recreation Center before returning home to play North St. Paul next Tuesday, January 19 at 7 p.m.

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