The intensity of the CEC hockey season intensified three-fold on Tuesday night when the Lumberjacks, ranked #4 in Class AA, hosted Duluth Marshall, ranked #3 in Class A. The Jacks skated to a 3-2 win in front of a sold-out house of fans whofound it difficult to sit in their chairs during the up and down affair.
CEC got on the scoreboard first when Justin Jokinen fired a pass from Tyler Johnson just above the left shoulder of Marshall goalie Jesse Behning at 9:24 of the first period.
Marshall came out flying early in the second period and carried the play to the Jacks and at one point outshot CEC 5-1 in the period. During that stretch Zach Mausolf pumped in a goal at 47 seconds. However, less than four minutes later Riley Roe stole the puck and made a quick pass to Ryan Defoe who made a great move on a Marshall defender as he tucked the puck up underneath the crossbar for a 2-1 CEC lead coming out of the second period.
The third period was a ferocious period of skating, checking and good chances for both teams with neither squad able to finish. CEC took a late penalty with under two minutes to play when the Jacks blocked a shot near the blueline and Tyler Johnson scooped up the puck and went in on Behning all alone. Johnson made a quick move and then slid the puck under the Marshall netminder for a shorthanded goal with just 1:01 left in the third period.
Marshall picked up the pace on their powerplay and finally managed to get a puck past Reid Ellingson who was magnificent in the win, but the goal by Ian Stauber came with 7.5 seconds remaining and it turned out to be too little too late.
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The Jacks outshot the Hilltoppers 22-21 with both goaltenders making 19 saves.
- After suffering their first loss of the season early last week, the CEC bounced back with a win over Proctor on Thursday and a Saturday home victory against Hibbing.
In the 3-1 win over Hibbing, the Jacks beat a Bluejacket squad that had tied Grand Rapids just a day before.
"I thought Hibbing played extremely hard and that might have been a little surprising since they had such a tough game the night before against Grand Rapids," said CEC coach Dave Esse. "We got some pretty good performances tonight. I thought Adam Boleman played very well as he moved up to the first line when Victor (Karlsson) went out, and I thought Colton Roy did a great job of centering the third line in the last period."
The game against Hibbing was scoreless through one period and most of the second before Tyler Johnson gave CEC a 1-0 lead at 13:53 with an unassisted tally. Johnson stole the puck inside the Bluejacket zone and pulled out of the right corner to just below the top of the face of the circle before firing a shot past Hibbing goalie Jascha Marchuk.
CEC went up 2-0 on a spectacular play by Ryan Defoe on the power play. Defoe cashed in on the right edge of the crease with just 32 seconds remaining in the second period on a backhander that was unassisted.
Logan Klobuchar got the Bluejackets to within a goal at 11:54 of the third with Ryan Hanegman assisting, but Johnson took a feed from Justin Jokinen in a 5-on-3 with just 58 seconds left to push CEC back up by two at 3-1.
"Ellingson played very well for us and I thought he deserved the shutout," explained Esse. "We also got some big plays from Tyler Johnson, who can really change the flow of a game when he decides to turn the light switch on."
Jacks netminder Reid Ellingson made 23 saves on 24 shots.
- On Thursday night the Lumberjacks rebounded from their loss to Grand Rapids by routing the Proctor Rails 6-1.
Johnson scored three goals against the Rails and Matt Sundstrom picked up the win in the nets by stopping 13-of-14 shots by Proctor.
Defoe got things started with a goal at 6:47 of the first period with Dylan Anderson assisting. At 7:13 it was Sever Lundquist scoring the Jacks' second goal with Defoe picking up the assist to make it 2-0. Johnson's first goal came at 7:39 of the first with Jokinen and Victor Karlsson assisting, and finally it was Johnson from Jokinen and Peter Allen scoring at 13:24 to make it 4-0 after one period.
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Johnson completed the hat trick with another marker at 10:19 of the second period with Jake Rychlak and Austin Hatch assisting for a 5-0 Jacks lead after the second period.
Just 48 seconds into the third period the Rails broke the shutout on a goal by Matt Billman and an assist to Justin Filzen, but the Jacks retaliated at the 2:27 mark on a goal by Austin Baker and assists going to David Brown and Colton Roy.
For the game, the Jacks fired 45 shots on Rail goalie Jason Erickson.
On the season the Jacks are now 15-1 and they are ranked fourth in the latest Minnesota A-P Class AA Poll.
Pine Journal sports reporter Kerry Rodd can be contacted at: kdrodd@aol.com .
