The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls hockey team took third place in the prestigious Schwan Cup this past week. The Jacks defeated Coon Rapids, lost to Benilde-St. Margarets and then slipped by Hill Murray in the third place game.
"It was a bit anti-climactic playing in the third-place game," mentioned CEC coach Dick Bartholdi. "We really wanted to get in that championship game."
In the opening round of the tournament the Jacks tied Coon Rapids in regulation and then took the win in an overtime shootout.
After a scoreless first period Coon Rapids gained the lead at 10:44 of the second on a goal by Amalee Windmeier. The lead went to 2-0 when Christine Knop scored at 4:22 of the third for Coon Rapids.
The Lumberjacks got a big goal from Sadie Lundquist at 9:02 on the power play, with Jessica Baublitz and Whitney Anderson assisting, and then CEC evened it with just 29 seconds remaining on an Anderson goal with Lundquist and Baublitz picking up the assists.
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Coon Rapids goalie Julie Braschayko made 23 saves on 25 shots and CEC's Paige Thunder made 24 saves on 26 shots.
By virtue of the win the Jacks moved into the semifinals with a chance to play Benilde-St. Margarets, one of the top three teams in the state and a team that beat CEC in the first game of the season by a goal. Unfortunately for the Jacks the result was the same, with Benilde taking a 1-0 shutout win.
"We thought we had tied the game in the second period, but the officials just didn't see the play," explained Bartholdi. "It was a great game and as I said at the beginning of the year, they are one of the fastest girls teams I've ever seen."
The only goal of the game came shorthanded at 10:27 of the first period for Benilde, who had 30 shots on Paige Thunder, while the Jacks had 24 on Amanda Nagel.
In the third-place game the Lumberjacks downed Hill Murray 2-1 in a game that saw all the scoring occur in the first period.
Danielle Beck notched the first goal for CEC at 4:32 on a power play, with Jessica Baublitz assisting, and then Baublitz scored an unassisted goal at 7:30 to make it 2-0 for the Jacks.
"Baublitz's goal was amazing," commented Bartholdi. "She literally went through their entire team to get the score."
The Pioneers pulled to within 2-1 with a goal at 11:45, but Paige Thunder and her defense slammed the door the rest of the way to get the win. Thunder made 22 saves while the Jacks had 19 shots on the Pioneer net.
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The Jacks will play at No. 2-ranked Edina on Friday against the Hornets who have been very impressive so far this season.
"We have been pretty successful through the years here and we have some pretty high expectations," mentioned Bartholdi. "Right now we are still trying to find the right line combinations and as I've said probably every year we need to find a way to score more goals in the big games."
The Jacks are an impressive 12-2-2 on the season.
Pine Journal sports reporter Kerry Rodd can be contacted at: kdrodd@aol.com .
