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A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
The Lumberjacks' Christian Galatz (7) battles to work the puck around Duluth East's Charlie Erickson (18) on a push to the net during Monday night's matchup between Cloquet-Esko-Carlton and Duluth East.
CEC's Gavin Rasmussen (13) works to keep the puck away from the boards, and from Duluth East Jonathan Jones (26) during Monday night's heated matchup between the Lumberjacks and the Greyhounds in Cloquet.
Earlier this year the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton boys hockey team fell in overtime to the Duluth East Greyhounds, so Thursday's matchup between the two teams in Cloquet had all the makings of another spine-tingling event. The game lacked the drama of the first game, as the Greyhounds scored once in the second period and another in the third period to pull off a 2-0 win.
The Lumberjacks carried the play against East to start and came out of the first period even at 0-0 with a 10-9 shot advantage on the shot clock. However, things changed in the second period as the Greyhounds picked up their pace of play and the 'Jacks were unable to match the intensity.
"We started to stray away from making the simple plays and playing physical in the second period," said CEC coach Shea Walters. "East came out with the mindset they were going to hit everything and shoot everything - no matter where they were in our zone. We were holding onto pucks too long and when we would get a power play, we would foil it by taking a penalty ourselves. We strayed away from outworking them and then couldn't establish a good forecheck."
East wrestled control of the momentum in the second period, outshooting CEC 20-6 and getting the only score of the period on a scramble around goalie Owen Carlson while in a 5-on-3 power play advantage. Jack Fitzgerald was able to pick up the puck and fire it past Carlson for a 1-0 East lead right after the first of CEC's two penalties had expired and before the player coming out of the penalty box could get back in the play to help his team. Ironically, CEC had a 5-on-3 power play themselves just prior to the goal, but were unable to convert any scoring chances.
"On one hand, if you score, you are in control of the game at that point," Walters said. "We needed to get gritty, shoot the puck, and our flanks needed to have a nose for the net. We were too cute and the momentum, which it often does if you don't convert, changed in favor of East."
With the Greyhounds firing everything but the kitchen sink on Carlson, he kept poised and fought hard to keep his squad in the game by allowing only the one goal in the second. East led 1-0 after two periods, but the 'Jacks still had a shot entering the final period.
"Owen played one of his best games of the season," Walters said. "He was poised, focused and eliminated second-chance opportunities. He gave us an opportunity to win and we just didn't convert."
The lone goal of the third period came on a pretty tip play when East's Logan Anderson slipped in behind the CEC defenders and redirected a pass from Jonathan Jones after Jones had taken a feed from Carson Cochran.
"We over-pursued and left their point wide open," explained Walters of the play. "We lost our man in the defensive zone and they found him on the back door."
The loss dropped the 'Jacks to 12-10 on the season, which is pretty remarkable considering they started the year going 0-for-5 in their first five games and 1-for-6 in their first seven affairs.
"I still like where we are as a team," Walters said. "We have grown a lot and [we] are night and day different from where we were at the beginning of the year. We will keep tweaking things to get us right where we need to be coming into the playoffs."
CEC still has three regular season games left on the docket. Friday night they play Proctor with back-to-back games, and next week against Grand Rapids and Hermantown to wrap up the season.
