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A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls hockey team at the start of their season-opening game.
CEC goalie Elise Lund (1) sucessfully blocks a shot from Orono Spartans Sarah Gustafson (21) during Saturday afternoon's 3-0 shutout in Cloquet.
CEC Emmie Ellena (15) makes a drive to the Orono net during Saturday afternoon's matchup of the CEC Lumberjacks and the Orono Spartans.
Girls Hockey
The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton Lumberjacks girls hockey team kicked off its season last week with wins in two of their first three games.
The Lumberjacks opened with a 3-2 victory over Brainerd at Northwood's Credit Union Arena Nov. 13. Olivia Wiskow got the Warriors on the scoreboard first, early in the first period.
Dea Deleon tied the game at 1-1 when she scored a powerplay goal at the 14:54 mark of the first period. Taylor Nelson and Tenley Stewart assisted on the Deleon goal.
The second period saw the Lumberjacks quickly moving in front 3-1 following goals from Taylor Nelson and Lauren Cawcutt. Deleon assisted on the Nelson goal and Jaxie Pogoreic assisted on the Cawcutt goal.
Abby Pohlcamp cut the 'Jacks lead to 3-2 late in the second period but that would be as close as the Warriors could come despite outshooting the Lumberjacks 39-19.
Senior goalie Elise Lund stopped 37 of the 39 shots she faced.
"I was focused in and my defense played great in front of me," Lund said. "I'm just glad we got the win."
On Friday night, Dodge County traveled and came away with a 3-1 victory. The Lumberjacks outshot the Wildcats 33-19.
Taylor Nelson scored the first goal of the game at the 11:14 mark of the first period as she took a pass from Deleon and put the puck past Wildcat goalie Sky Hughes.
The Wildcats scored the next three goals, including an empty-netter.
"We had some many chances," head coach Courtney Olin said. "I still thought we were going to win until they scored that empty-netter."
Less than 24 hours after falling to the Wildcats, the Lumberjacks had to regroup and take on perennial hockey power Orono on Saturday afternoon in Cloquet. The 'Jacks blanked the visitors 3-0.
Both teams came out sluggish in a slow first period. The Lumberjacks found their speed and quickness in the second period as they skated up and down the ice. It appeared the Spartans were still flat-footed from their win Friday night over Chisago Lakes.
Emmie Ellena scored on a rebound on the power play. Jaxie Pogoreic added the assist as the Lumberjacks took a 1-0 lead at 13:46 of the second period.
Taylor Nelson then scored the first of her two goals in the game as she took a pass from Deleon and beat goalie Anna Lisle glove-side to give CEC a 2-0 edge. Bender also added an assist on the Nelson goal. Nelson made it 3-0 at the 2:46 mark of the third period when she scored on a breakaway set up with a pass from Bender.
Nelson was coming off a state tournament run for the Carlton Bulldogs volleyball team and had only one practice before the first game. She appears to be in midseason form after the first week of play.
"We had a scrimmage [on Nov. 10] and when we get back to the arena there was Taylor, seven hours removed from the state tournament, out on the ice skating and shooting pucks, that shows what a great group of kids we have," Olin said.
CEC continued with the up-tempo pace and good defensive play to keep the Spartans at bay. Elise Lund earned the shutout, stopping the 11 shots she faced.
"Our job is to keep the puck away from our net," senior Keegan Anderson said.
"We love playing defense there's nothing better," Lexi Cooke said.
The Lumberjacks will have two more home contests before hitting the road for the first time this season. CEC hosted Moose Lake Area Tuesday and Princeton today. The team travels to Blaine Saturday to take on Spring Lake Park.
