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Chisago Lakes 6, Pine City 4

The Wildcats led the Pine City Dragons 5-1 after two periods, and it looked like  Chisago Lakes was on its way to a comfortable win.  But the Dragons scored three goals in a three-minute span early in the period to cut the Wildcat lead 5-4.  Ben Kerkow sealed the win for the Wildcats with an empty net goal with 14 seconds remaining, to give the Wildcats a 6-4 win in front of the home crowd Thursday, December 14.

The Bulldogs trailed 1-0 in the first period before Jack Bakken scored with 44 seconds left in the period to tie the game at 1-1, assisted by Joe Alexander and Max Koch.  

The Wildcats broke the game wide open with four goals in the second period.  Max Bobrowski scored a power play goal just 39 seconds into the period, with assists going to Andrew Swanson and Kerkow.  Griffin Perreault put one in the back of the net just 36 seconds later to make it 3-1.  Swanson and Koch picked up the assists.  Bakken picked up his second goal of the game just three minutes after that, assisted by Perreault and Slettom.  And Alexander completed the four-goal binge at the 15:13 mark, with assists going to Kerkow and Bakken.

Pine City started its comeback with a goal at 5:58 of the third period and added another goal a minute later,  to cut the Wildcat lead to 5-3.  They ramped-up the pressure with another goal two minutes later, now trailing 5-4.  But the Wildcats stopped the bleeding and held firm after that before Kerkow’s late empty netter allowed them to relax a bit.  Swanson and Bobrowski picked up the assists on Kerkow’s goal.

Chisago Lakes 6, Faribault 2

Joe Alexander notched his first career hat trick and added an assist to lead the Wildcats to a 6-2 win over the Faribault Falcons on Monday, December 18 at Chisago Lakes Arena.  The Wildcats outshot the Falcons just 35-32 for the game, but goaltending made a big difference as Wildcat goalie Brett Hanson stopped 30 of the 32 shots he faced.

The Wildcats surged ahead with a three-goal burst early in the first period.  Griffin Perreault scored at 5:02, assisted by Andrew Swanson and Max Koch, to put the Wildcats up 1-0.  Exactly two minutes later, Alexander scored his first to goal to double the Wildcat lead to 2-0, with assists going to Jack Bakken and Dusin Palewicz.  And Max Bobrowski added a goal just over two minutes after that to make it 3-0.  Perreault and Swanson picked up the assists.

Alexander scored his second goal of the game two minutes into the second period, assisted by Bakken and Swanson.  The Falcons got on the board a minute later with a power play goal to cut the Wildcat lead 4-1.  But Bakken put one in the back of the net near the midway point of the period, with assists going to Alexander and Austin Slettom, pushing the Wildcat lead to four.  Alexander completed his hat trick at 1:46 of the third period, assisted by Bakken and Bobrowski.  Faribault added a goal a few minutes later to make the final score 6-2.

Hockey Hullaballoo

The Wildcats welcome the Becker/Big Lake Eagles to Chisago Lakes Arena Dec 21,  tonight at 6 p.m.  It’s the fifth straight home game for the Wildcats.  If you planned to attend tonight’s game, note the early start time.

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