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Chisago Lakes 10, Princeton 1
The Wildcats got hat tricks and four assists apiece from Dani Burgen and Jenna Lawry as they steamrolled the Princeton Tigers 10-1 Monday, January 25 at Chisago Lakes Arena.  The Wildcats outshot the overmatched Tigers 58-6 for the game.

Nora DeVries and Brooke Klemz each scored their first varsity goal in this game.  Kaitlyn Hansen and Dani Brunette also scored.  Hansen, Laine DeVries, Brunette and Dylan Grilz each had an assist in the onslaught.

“We didn’t go out of our way to pour it on in this one,” said Wildcat head coach Dave Burgen.  “Our third and fourth lines got quite a number of shifts, giving them some valuable experience.  Our top line was just very dialed in to scoring when they were on the ice.”

Chisago Lakes 4, South St. Paul 1
The second-ranked Wildcats knocked off another top ten team, beating the seventh-ranked South St. Paul Packers 4-1 Friday, January 29 at Chisago Lakes Arena.  The Packers were ranked fourth at the beginning of the season.

The Wildcats took the lead about ten minutes into the first period.  Skating on the power play, they tried a long cross ice pass near the red line, but it was broken up.  Nora DeVries picked up the loose puck at center ice and headed straight for the net.  Using a Packer defenseman as a shield, she shot the puck inside the right post to put the Wildcats up 1-0.  Very late in the second period, the Wildcats had a faceoff in the right circle in the South St. Paul zone.  Dani Burgen won the faceoff and passed the puck across to Laine DeVries in the left circle.  DeVries fired a shot on net and the goalie made the save, with the puck trickling just to the right of the net.  Dylan Grilz pounced on the rebound and jammed it home to put the Wildcats up 2-0 with 28 seconds remaining in the second period.

The Packers scored about four minutes into the third period to pull within one goal of the Wildcats.  But just over three minutes later, Burgen sent a pass fro the left circle to Jenna Lawry in the right circle, and Lawry roofed it to put the Wildcats up 3-1.  With exactly three minutes to go in the game, there was a scrum in front to the South St. Paul net.  Kayla Bluhm picked up a loose puck and pushed it into past the goalie and into the back of the net to make the score 4-1.

The officiating was questionable late in this one.  Twice in the third period, Packer players grabbed and threw Wildcat players down to the ice after the whistle blew.  Both incidents should have resulted in five-minute majors and game misconducts, but no penalties were called.
“I thought this game would be a lot closer,” said Wildcat head coach Dave Burgen.  “We want to jump on teams early.  We have scored first in all six of our games so far this season and have been playing great hockey after that, with the exception of the Blake game.  We are playing with confidence, knowing that we have a good shot at winning every game.  And it sounds cliché, but we are doing things one game at a time.  We don’t talk about the last game once it’s over and we don’t look past the next game on the schedule.”

The Wildcats outshot the Packers 36-29 for the game.  Wildcat goalie Anna Hanson stopped 28 of the 29 shots she faced.  Burgen said “Anna gives us the opportunity to be aggressive on the other end of the ice.  We have a tremendous amount of confidence in our goaltending and defense.”

Hockey Hullaballoo
Senior Jenna Lawry is hitting some significant career scoring milestones and is poised to break some career scoring records.  Lawry’s first goal against Princeton was her 100th career goal.  And her third goal of that game gave her 200 career points, consisting of 103 goals and 97 assists.

Lawry is on the verge of breaking two records held by former Wildcat star Megan Lushanko.  She needs 21 more points to pass Lushanko’s record of 220.  And nine more assists will allow her to pass Lushanko’s record of 105.  Caeserae Stimson holds the team records for career goals with 135, so Lawry has quite a bit more work to do to pass Stimson.  But even if she doesn’t reach that goal, a trip to the state tournament with a chance to win it all will more than make up for it.

The Wildcats (5-1-0) will welcome the Northern Tier Stars to Chisago Lakes Arena tonight at 7 p.m.  Northern Tier is a co-op of three schools:  Cambridge-Isanti, St. Francis, and North Branch.  And next Tuesday, February 9 the Pine City Dragons will also pay a visit to Chisago Lakes Arena, with a 7 p.m. start.

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