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Chisago Lakes 4, River Lakes 3
The Wildcats led 3-0 after two periods against the seventh-ranked River Lakes Stars, but gave up three power play goals in the third period and escaped with a 4-3 win Tuesday, March 2 at Paynesville Arena.  The Wildcats spent most of the third period killing penalties, taking six penalties to just one for the Stars.

After a scoreless first period, Dylan Grilz got the Wildcats on the board with a power play goal at 6:24 of the second period, assisted by Jenna Lawry and Dani Brunette.  Just 18 seconds later, Syd Boyle scored, with the assist going to Nora DeVries, to put the Wildcats up 2-0.  And Lawry scored with 1:18 left in the period to make it 3-0.  Dani Burgen got the assist on Lawry’s goal.

The Stars scored just two minutes into the third period to cut the Wildcats lead to 3-1.   Laine DeVries answered just over a minute later with the teams skating four-on-four to extend the Wildcat lead to 4-1.  Laine DeVries’ goal proved to be critical, as the Wildcats took four more penalties and gave up two more power play goals.  The last one came with 1:16 left in the game, and the Wildcats, finally at even strength, were able to hold on for the win.

Chisago Lakes 2, Mahtomedi 0
The Wildcats dominated the Mahtomedi Magic from start to finish.  Mahtomedi goalie Ella Heath saved all 24 shots she faced in the first two periods, but Jenna Lawry broke through with two goals in the third period.  Wildcat goalie Anna Hanson stopped all 14 shots she faced, and the Wildcats came away with a 2-0 win over the Magic Friday, March 5 at Chisago Lakes Arena.  The Wildcats outshot Mahtomedi 38-14 for the game.  Lawry’s first goal, the game-winner, came at 5:23 of the third period, assisted by Dani Burgen.  Lawry added a power play goal with six minutes to go in the game, assisted by Dani Brunette and Burgen.

Wildcats head coach Dave Burgen said “Mahtomedi is very well coached.  They don’t have any real goal scorers, but they have a big, physical defense.  After the game, their coach said it was the best game their goalie, Ella Heath, had played all year.”

Chisago Lakes 5, St. Cloud 4
Trailing 4-1 to the St. Cloud Breakers after two periods, the Wildcats woke up and scored three goals in the first three minutes of the third period to tie the game at 4-4.  And with 48 seconds to go in the game, Dani Burgen scored a shorthanded goal off of a beautiful pass by Jenna Lawry to give the Wildcats a 5-4 come-from-behind win.  The shorthanded goal gave Burgen her fifth hat trick of the season.  The game was played at Chisago Lakes Arena Saturday, March 6.

The Wildcats dominated the first period, outshooting the Breakers 16-5, but St. Cloud goalie Kailee Falconer stopped everything to keep the game scoreless.  The Breakers got on the board first, scoring just under six minutes into the second period.  The Wildcats tied it up a minute-and-a-half later.  A Wildcat player, likely Jenna Lawry, sent a pass for the right corner to Dani Burgen standing wide open in front other net about ten feet out.  Burgen roofed a shot into the upper right corner to tie the game at 1-1.  But the Breakers answered with three more goals, including a shorthanded goal with just two second lefts in the period, to go up 4-1 after two periods.  Wildcat goalie Anna Hanson struggled in the second period, giving up four goals on just seven shots.

The Wildcats got themselves back into the game with a goal just 16 seconds into the third period, still on the same power play on which they had given up the shorthanded goal at the end of the second period.  Lawry skated out of the left corner with the puck, turned and shot from the lower left circle, putting the puck into the net to cut the St. Cloud lead to 4-2.  Dani Burgen got the assist.  Just 50 seconds later, Lawry carried the puck all the way down the right side of the ice, curved to the middle and shot.  Burgen was right there to clean up the rebound and cut the Wildcat deficit to 4-3.  St. Cloud immediately called a timeout to try to stop the bleeding, but it didn’t help.  Less than two minutes later, Dani Brunette scored just a few seconds into a shift to tie the game at 4-4.

There was a lot of action over the rest of the period, with the Wildcats outshooting the Breakers 17-12 for the period.  Even when the Wildcats took a penalty with 2:18 left in the game, they were playing well enough that it looked like they would be able to get the game to overtime.  But with under a minute to go in the period and the Wildcats skating shorthanded, Lawry pick up a loose puck in the zone and skated it down the middle of the ice.  She veered left as she crossed the blue line and took both St. Cloud defenders with her.  As she got to the bottom of the left circle, she sent a behind the back pass to a wide open Burgen out in front of the net, and Burgen scored easily to complete her hat trick and put the Wildcats up 5-4.  But the excitement wasn’t over.  Still skating on the power play, the Breakers got the puck deep in the zone with about 25 seconds left in the game.  They got off a shot that Hanson saved.  The referee’s quickly blew the whistle as they couldn’t see the puck, but it had actually squirted loose.  Since the whistle had blown, the play was over.  The Wildcats hung on for the last few seconds and celebrated their first come-from-behind win of the season.

“Assistant coach Bob Truax is a pretty even-keeled guy,” said Wildcat head coach Dave Burgen.  “But when we got a chance to go into the locker room after the second period, he told the team to stop feeling sorry for themselves.  He asked them how they were going to respond to giving up four goals.  He asked them how many goals St. Cloud in the second period.  In fact, he asked them several times until they were practically shouting the answer – ‘four!’  So he said “Well then, let’s go get five!”  And we went out and had a very good period of hockey, although there was a stalemate in the middle.  But there was a great ending.”

Gentry Academy 7, Chisago Lakes 1
The Wildcats lost just their second game of the season this past Monday night, falling to the Gentry Academy Stars 7-1 Monday, March 8 at Chisago Lakes Arena.  The Stars dominated the game from start to finish, outshooting the Wildcats 36-14 for the game.  Laine DeVries scored an unassisted goal with just over two minutes to go in the game to avoid the shutout.  Most of the Gentry shots were high-quality, and Wildcat goaltender Anna Hanson kept the Wildcats in the game for a couple of periods.  The Stars scored twice in the first four minutes of the third period to squelch any Wildcat thoughts of a comeback.

The Stars came out blazing in the first period, putting the Wildcats back on their heels.  The Gentry depth showed through as each of their top three lines were able to put pressure on the Wildcats.  The Stars scored twice in the first period and once in the second.  The Wildcats evened up the play somewhat as the game went on, but ultimately didn’t’ shoot the puck enough to get themselves back in the games.  They passed up numerous opportunities to shoot while seemingly looking for the perfect shot.  Playing for the highest quality shots works effectively against most teams, but not against Gentry.

The refereeing has been spotty this season, but it was at its worst in this game.  And poor refereeing is not the reason the Wildcats lost this game.  But they called just two penalties in the first period and probably could have called eight or ten.  They did start calling more penalties in the third period.  But when Dani Burgen was checked into the boards headfirst by a Gentry Academy player late in the third period, there was no call.  It should have been a major penalty with a misconduct tacked on.

Hockey Hullaballoo
Dani Burgen and Jenna Lawry are tied for twelfth in the state with 40 points each.  Goalie Anna Hanson is tied for second in the state with 13 wins.  Dani Brunette has averaged nearly two points per game in the Wildcats’ last ten games, with seven goals and eleven assists.

The Wildcats (14-2-0), who had a 13-game winning streak snapped by Gentry Academy, dropped to number two in Class A in the state.

The Wildcats have two games left in the regular season.  Have you ever wondered how many teams have the nickname “Stars”?  Well, it must be a lot, because the Wildcats are playing their third such team in the past two weeks.  They will head to Isanti Ice Arena to play the Northern Tier Stars (10-6-0) tonight at 7 p.m.  The Wildcats beat Northern Tier 6-2 earlier this season.  The Wildcats will finish out the regular season this Saturday against the Pine City Dragons at 7 p.m. at the Pine City Civic Center.  The Wildcats snuffed out the Dragons 8-0 earlier this season.

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