The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton boys hockey team is still in the process of figuring out their identity. Much like the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the CEC hockey team showed one side in a Thursday win on the road and an altogether different one in a tie on Saturday.
Thursday night, the Jacks defeated a good Buffalo team on the road in a game that was telecast statewide. The Buffalo arena was rocking with a sold-out crowd. Patrons arrived hours early to get their spot as well as to do a little tailgating outside the building.
Buffalo scored first on a Luke Marty goal at 10:06 of the first period and that's how it stood after one period of play.
The Jacks came out flying in the second period as Jamie Godbout scored on an assist from Justin Jokinen at 5:28. At 7:23, it was Oscar Carlsson scoring from Adam Boleman and Colton Roy as CEC took the lead for good at 2-1.
In the third period, Jokinen scored an empty net goal from Boleman and David Brown to make it 3-1, but Buffalo managed a late goal by Matt Leaf with just :04 seconds remaining.
ADVERTISEMENT
CEC got a strong effort in goal by Aaron Baker who was called on to make 35 saves while Jon Zitur made 22 saves for Buffalo. Defensively, the Jacks did a good job of keeping the shots to the outside and allowing Baker to see the first shot while getting rid of the rebounds.
- On Saturday, the Jacks struggled to a 3-3 tie at home against the Andover Huskies.
The Huskies scored first on a goal by Talor Tollete at 4:10 of the first period, but CEC answered on a goal by Adam Boleman at 15:16 on the power play with Godbout and Jake Rychlak assisting.
At 4:09 of the second period, Jokinen scored with Austin Hatch and Aaron Baker assisting to make it 2-1. Things got even better for CEC at the 10:07 mark when David Brown scored from the high slot on the power play as Jokinen and Hatch assisted for the 3-1 advantage.
The Huskies picked up the pace toward the end of the second period as Alex Basara scored with just 1:24 remaining to cut the lead to 3-2.
In the final period, both teams had excellent chances to score but it was the Huskies' Tyler Boyce who finally tied the game at 7:27 on the power play.
In overtime, the Jacks had a number of quality chances against Huskie goaltender Matt Ray, but Ray was able to slam the door the remainder of the way.
Baker finished with 23 saves and Ray finished with 34 saves in the game.
