Because of the addition of Ashland to the Lake Superior Conference the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton hockey team had to face the Oredockers for the first time. Since CEC is ranked No. 2 in the state of Minnesota, it was expected the game would be as close to an automatic notch in the win column as you can get and that is exactly how things played out on Thursday when the Jacks won 10-0.
"I was proud of how our guys played with respect to their opponent and to the game," said CEC coach Dave Esse after the game. "Ashland did the best they could and I was proud of how we conducted ourselves. The most important thing for us is we came out of the game without anyone getting hurt and I thought our goalie [Matt Sundstrom] played the puck very well."
Despite playing limited minutes compared to normal, Tyler Johnson pounced on the Oredockers for three goals and an assist in helping lead CEC to the win, while backup goaltender Matt Sundstrom made nine saves to get the win, which was his second shutout of the season.
Justin Jokinen scored the game's first goal at 4:18 with Johnson and Victor Karlsson assisting in the first period. Adam Boleman picked up his first goal of the season at 13:57 with Zach Dunaisky and Colton Roy picking up the assists. First period scoring ended when David Brown picked up a marker on an assist by Riley Roe at 15:16.
Roy picked up his first varsity goal at 1:47 of the second with Dunaisky and Boleman assisting and that pushed the lead to 4-0. Johnson scored the first of his three goals at 7:12 with Jokinen assisting. At 8:40 Peter Allen pumped in a shot from the point on the power play with Austin Hatch and Sever Lundquist providing the assists and it was 6-0 CEC. Finally Johnson got his second goal on a nice pass from Jokinen on a feed from Karlsson at 16:59 as the Jacks came out of the period with a 7-0 lead.
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At 5:59 of the third Johnson finished his hat trick with Jokinen and Karlsson assisting. Ryan Defoe scored at 12:48 with Roe and Lundquist assisting and finally at 15:53 Josh Ermatinger scored with Jamie Godbout and Kyle Potswald picking up the assist for the final of 10-0.
The Lumberjacks gave up just one shot on goal in each of the first two periods against Ashland. Meanwhile, CEC put 52 shots on Ashland goaltender Kal Fengman who finished with 42 saves on 52 shots.
Jokinen recorded a goal and three assists as he finished with a four-point night for the Jacks.
The win was the 12th of the season for the Jacks who are ranked No. 2 in the Class AA polls.
Pine Journal sports reporter Kerry Rodd can be contacted at: kdrodd@aol.com .
