'Cats 2-0 coming out of holiday break

Chisago Lakes 4, Irondale 1 Jacob Breyfogle scored his first career hat trick and also picked up an assist as the Wildcats beat Irondale 4-1 Thursday, January 3 at the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine. Wildcat head coach Paul Gibson said “The line of Jacob Breyfogle, Trevor Lushanko, and Brandon Gillespie had an outstanding game, accounting for all of the scoring. Jacob Breyfogle continues to be one of our most consistent players. He shows up every game and every practice and gives an honest effort.”

Breyfogle scored five minutes into the first period, assisted by Trevor Lushanko, to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead. That was it for scoring until Breyfogle scored at 6:06 of the third period, with assists going to Lushanko and Trevor Bluhm. Irondale scored less than two minutes later to cut the Wildcat lead to one. But Lushanko answered less than a minute after that for the Wildcats to stretch the lead back to two. Breyfogle and Brandon Gillespie assisted on the play. With 90 seconds left in the game, a Knight defenseman whiffed on a clearing attempt in front of his own net. Blake Lizotte tried to one time the puck into the net, but it trickled to the left to Gillespie behind the goal line. Gillespie fired a perfect pass to Breyfogle charging into the left edge of the slot and Breyfogle one-timed a low shot inside the right post to complete his hat trick and put the game out of reach. Gibson said, “The game seemed to be more of a defensive battle, which I think was good for our team. Sometimes I think we get stuck in offensive mode and forget that keeping the other team from scoring is just as important.” The Knights outshot the Wildcats 22-19 for the game, but Wildcats goalie Bryce Thompson was stalwart in the net, stopping 21 of the 22 shots to pick up the win.

Chisago Lakes 7, Amery 0 The Wildcat boys’ hockey team headed across the border into Cheeseland and sliced up the Amery Warriors 7-0 in a matinee Saturday, January 5 at Amery Ice Arena. Jacob Speight had a goal and three assists for the Wildcats. Bradee Thompson scored twice and had an assist. Blake Lizotte continues to be a playmaker, picking up three assists. The other four Wildcat goals were scored by Louis Kastenbauer, Trevor Lushanko, Jacob Breyfogle and Ben Knaak. Zach Lambrecht had two assists, and Colton Reynolds, Brandon Gillespie and Justin Bye contributed one assist each. “Speighter continues with his scoring touch,” said Wildcat head coach Paul Gibson.

“At the beginning of the season, we looked at Jake as more of a grinding type forward who would be a set-up guy. To our surprise, he has developed into one of our top scorers.” Shots were even at 28 apiece. Jake Dubose had another solid performance in the net to record the shutout. Gibson said “When we, as coaches, have such high expectations for our goaltenders, as we do for Jake and Bryce, we likely don’t praise them enough. On our current seven game unbeaten streak, we have outscored our opponents by a margin of 36-11. These numbers speak volumes to the quality of our netminders.” The Wildcats (10-4-1 overall, 2-1-0 conference) host conference foe Spring Lake Park tonight at Chisago Lakes Arena. This Saturday, January 12 they will head for New Hope Ice Arena to take on Robbinsdale Cooper at 3 p.m. in another conference clash. And Tuesday, January 15 the Wildcats will welcome Henry Sibley to Chisago Lakes Arena, with the game getting underway at 7 p.m.