Northern Stars ding Lumberjacks

Despite outshooting the Duluth Northern Stars by more than a 2-1 margin, the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls hockey team fell in overtime Tuesday night at Northwoods Credit Union Arena.

Gracyn Schipper scored 11 seconds into the 8-minute overtime to give the Northern Stars a 2-1 victory over the Lumberjacks, her second goal of the game with both assists coming from Bailey Theis.

The 'Jacks outshot Duluth by a margin of 33-16 for the night. Stars goaltender Aailli Anttila stopped 32 of the 33 shots she faced.

Cloquet-Esko-Carlton outshot Duluth 7-3 in the first period, which ended in a scoreless tie. Schipper scored the first of her two goals at 7:49 of the second period to give the Stars the early lead and that is how the second period would end.

"We got better each period, but consistency and doing the little things each shift has to be a priority for our success later in the season and into playoffs," said CEC head coach Kennedy Weets. "We were making good reads to the net as we put up 35-plus shots on a strong DNS goalie, but we didn't do our best at challenging her and forcing her to move early on in the game. Our goal in the third was a great example of getting her off her angles with quick clean puck movements and a nice tip in front of the net."

The Lumberjacks tallied their first goal of the game in the third period as Brayley Merrier scored her team-leading sixth goal of the season. It was also her team-leading ninth point of the season to give the Jacks a 1-1 tie with Duluth.

Merrier's goal was assisted by Brooke Koski and Megan Werhan at the 2:58 mark of the second period. The Lumberjacks continued to apply pressure but were unable to add another goal.

CEC had a golden opportunity as they went on the power play late in the third period, but again, they were unable to get the puck past Anttila despite outshooting the Stars 17-6 in the third period.

The overtime shot by Schipper hit Strang's stick but bounced the wrong way for the Lumberjacks.

"It was a matter of inches, if not centimeters, with a wide-out shot to start the overtime hitting Izzy's knob and not going into the net," Weets said. "Definitely not the way we anticipated overtime going. I felt we held the momentum there at the end of the third with our late goal and the end of the period power play."

The Lumberjacks fell to 4-5 on the season and were scheduled to face Rock Ridge in Eveleth on Thursday. They host Sartell/Sauk Rapids in their next home game at 3 p.m. Saturday before finishing up with three road games in four days before the holiday break. They will play at Proctor on Tuesday, Dec. 17, at Pine City on Thursday and Moose Lake on Dec. 20.

"We still have a lot of growth that needs to happen within our team/program for us to be 'running efficiently' and the girls need to continue to buy into what we are trying to teach," Weets said.

The Duluth Northern Stars improved to 5-3-1 with the win.

Weets said she is looking forward to a rematch. "We let our attitude and effort take us out of the game early on and struggled to bounce back from mistakes and adversity, [but] we get a redemption game in January."