Rebels off to a slow start

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After delaying the start of its season due to success in the state high school football playoffs, the Moose Lake Area boys hockey team lost 7-0 at Becker-Big Lake in its season-opening game on Tuesday night.

The Rebels were outshot 21-4 in the first period and 40-9 for the game, trailing 4-0 after the first period.

Elliot Darsow scored two goals for the home team in the game, in which the Rebels were held without a shot on goal for the entire third period.

Moose Lake Area must play this season minus Minnesota’s leading goal scorer. Josh Cisar, who scored 63 goals last season and missed tying the state record for goals in a season by a single tally, graduated last year.

Tyler Cisar (40-41-81 a season ago) is not with the team this year, and neither is Jake Cisar (9-15-24).

Tyler and Josh Cisar are both with the Aberdeen Wings of the North American Hockey League, according to the club’s website, and Jake Cisar did not come out for the team according to first-year head coach Trevor Howe.

Senior defenseman Cole Lower (4-7-11) is the top returning scorer from last season’s 12-15 team.

“It was a rough first period but not a bad opening game,” Howe said, in reference to Tuesday’s opener. “It was good to see our players hitting the ice last week, and we have some who haven’t had any time off from fall sports. We progressed throughout the game.”

The success of the Rebels football program has pushed back the start of hockey season over the last several seasons.

“It does make it tough in that transition,” Howe said. “The athletes coming right from the state tournament have to step right into the game. We postponed our first games due to low numbers, and it does make a difference.”

The Rebels’ position is the first head coaching job for Howe, who grew up in Coleraine and worked with programs in Montana including a startup team in Darby, a small town in the southwest part of the state along the Idaho border. He is teaching industrial technology and engineering in the Moose Lake district and hopes to help the hockey program build.

“I like Moose Lake,” he said. “I like the school district, and for the hockey team I hope to get more organized play. There is a lot of potential here, and some holes that we need to fill. We have five seniors and we need some players to step up their game. Things are looking good for the future.”

The Rebels play at North Branch Tuesday night in a Two Rivers Conference game.

Lumberjacks bury Proctor

Meanwhile, the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton boys team blitzed Proctor 11-0 in its Lake Superior Conference opener Tuesday night after falling 7-6 in overtime at Bloomington Jefferson Saturday.

The ’Jacks buried the Rails with an eight-goal outburst in the second period and outshot their hosts 64-9 for the game, with Justin Ketola earning his second shutout in three games to start the season.

After James Newgren opened the scoring at 9:19 of the first period, Karson Kuhlman and Dylan Michaud both scored in the opening half-minute of the second period to put CEC too far ahead to catch.

Kulhman scored a hat trick in the second period alone, while linemate Westin Michaud scored one goal in the second period and two more in the third for a hat trick of his own. The top line of Westin Michaud, Beau Michaud and Kuhlman combined for six goals and six assists on the night.

The second period was the problem at Bloomington Ice Gardens, as the Jaguars scored five goals in the middle session in CEC’s 7-6 loss.

The Jaguars had 44 shots on goal in the game but an amazing 25 of them came in the second period. Jefferson’s goals were consecutive, erasing a 2-0 CEC lead built on first-period goals by Kuhlman and Beau Michaud.

CEC’s comeback was frantic, with Westin and Beau Michaud each scoring in the last three minutes of the second period to trim the deficit to 5-4, and goals from Tanner Robideaux and Koby Bender in the third helped force overtime before Jefferson’s A.J. Robbel won the game 56 seconds into the extra session.

Ketola stopped 37 of 44 shots on goal for the ’Jacks, who host South St. Paul Thursday night and are at White Bear Lake Saturday afternoon.

Tags: moose lake, sports