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The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls hockey team evened its season record at 1-1 Tuesday night with a 1-0 victory over the Moose Lake Area Rebels at Riverside Arena in Moose Lake. Lumberjacks junior defender Sarah Blais scored with one second left in the first period for the only goal of the game.
The game marked the first win and shutout for Lumberjacks eighth grade goaltender, Izzy Strang, as part of the CEC varsity. With only five seniors on the CEC roster this season, underclassmen are expected to step up this season.
The Lumberjacks have a busy start this season with solid teams ahead of them on the docket.
Efforts to reach both coaches before the deadline were unsuccessful.
Both MLA and CEC were coming off opening season losses on Saturday.
CEC opened the season dropping the first contest of the year to Anoka, 4-2. The Tornadoes jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one period. Erin Loeb tallied the Lumberjacks first goal of the season on an even strength goal with an assist coming for Macie Greiner.
However, Anoka scored two more goals in a penalty-filled second period to make it 4-1. Gwen Lilly scored the game's only goal in the third period on the power play with assists from Emma Parks and Brayley Merrier. Strang had 16 saves in the loss for CEC.
The Rebels opened their season Saturday as they fell to Breck at home, 4-2. MLA's Hallie Klavu scored the game's first goal early in the game, but Breck responded and scored the next three goals over the rest of the first and second periods to take a 3-1 lead.
Megan Hattenberger cut the Mustangs lead to 3-2 just 18 seconds into the third period and it remained that way until Breck scored an empty net goal with 52 seconds remaining. The Rebels outshot the Mustangs 31-16 in the loss.
The Lumberjacks were set to play their home opener Thursday against Marshall. The Lumberjacks are also home Saturday as they welcome Bloomington Jefferson to Northwoods Credit Union Arena for a 3 p.m. game. At 7 p.m. Tuesday, they face the Rebels for the second time, this time at home.
The Rebels, who fell to 0-2 to start the season, will host Litchfield-Dassel-Cokato at
3 p.m. Saturday before playing their first road game of the season against the Lumberjacks Tuesday.