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Chisago Lakes 2, Pine City 1
Ryan Schmidt scored with 47 seconds left in the game, assisted by Ben Jinks, to give the Wildcats a 2-1 win over the Pine City Dragons Tuesday, December 14 at the Pine City Civic Center.  Nik Jinks had scored early in the first period, with an assist going to Ashton Edson, to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.  That lead held up until the Dragons tied it up with 3:47 left in the game.  But exactly three minutes later, when the game appeared headed for overtime, Schmidt’s goal won it for the Wildcats.  Pine City outshot the Wildcats 30-28 for the game.  Wildcat goalie Jack Hanson stopped 29 of the 30 shots he faced to pick up the win.

Princeton 6, Chisago Lakes 4
The previously undefeated Wildcats suffered their first defeat of the season, falling 6-4 to the Princeton Tigers Thursday, December 16 at Chisago Lakes Arena.

Ashton Edson scored an unassisted goal in the first period to put the Wildcats u 1-0.  But the Tigers came back with three straight goals in the second period to go up 3-2.  Nik Jinks scored with about five minutes left in the period, assisted by Nick Helland and Ryan Schmidt, to cut the Princeton lead to 3-2.  The Tigers scored two goals early in the third period, at 2:48 and 3:45, to possibly put the game out of reach at 5-2.  But at 6:10, Schmidt scored an unassisted goal on a power play to cut the lead to two.  Cam Stangl scored just 50 seconds later, assisted by Nik Jinks, and the Wildcats were again within one goal, trailing 5-4.  The Dragons scored with about five minutes to go in the game to give themselves a bit of breathing room and hung on for the win.  The Wildcats outshot the Tigers 39-37 for the game.

Chisago Lakes 6, Mound Westonka 5
The Wildcats scored six goals in a chippy, crazy second period and went on to beat the Mound Westonka White Hawks 6-5 Saturday, December 18 at Chisago Lakes Arena.  Of the eight goals scored between the two teams in the second period, five came on the power play and one was shorthanded.  And those eight goals were scored on just 21 shots.

The White Hawks scored the only goal of the first period to take a 1-0 lead.  Nick Jinks started the Wildcat scoring binge with a goal at 1:21 of the second period, assisted by Nick Helland and Ryan Schmidt, to make the score 1-1.  Mound Westonka responded with a power play goal at 6:07 to go up 2-1.  Schmidt, assisted by Helland and Jinks, scored a power play goal at 7:51 to tie the game 2-2.   The Wildcats took their first lead of the game at 8:46 on an even strength goal by Ashton Edson, assisted by Owen Fitzgerald and Sage Senne.   The White Hawks briefly tied the game with a shorthanded goal at 10:29.  Almost exactly a minute later, on the same power play, Ben Jinks scored, with assists going to Fitzgerald and Edson, to give the Wildcats a 4-3 lead.

The key moment in the game turned out to be a five-minute major penalty assessed to Mound Westonka at 13:28 of the second period.  The Wildcats scored twice on the long power play.  Nick Jinks scored at 15:18, assisted by Nate Bluhm.  And Cam Stangl put one in the back of the net with 32 seconds left in the period, assisted by Helland and Schmidt, to make the score 6-3.  The White Hawks scored twice in the first three minutes of the third period, but the defense stiffened, and the Wildcats hung on for the 6-5 win. Mound Westonka outshot the Wildcats 34-28 for the game.

Hockey Hullaballoo
Ryan Schmidt is tied for fifth in the state with 14 goals and is also tied for seventh in overall points with 25.

The Wildcats (7-1-1) have just one game over the next couple of weeks, taking on the Forest Lake Rangers at Forest Lake Sports Center Tuesday, December 28.

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