The Moose Lake Area boys hockey team has been making big strides under second-year coach Sherm Liimitainen this season. Last weekend the young Rebels went 2-and-1 on their way to finishing second in their own hockey tournament.
"We have a lot of young guys and we play 10 sophomores, two freshman and an eighth-grader," commented Liimitainen. "Every game and every practice we are seeing improvement and the guys are excited about coming to the rink."
In the championship game the Rebels were beaten by the Pine City Dragons 8-3.
"Pine City has 13 seniors and that is hard to compete against for us right now," explained Liimitainen. "I think over the weekend our guys kind of found themselves."
Pine City led 3-1 after the first period and 7-3 after two, but the young Rebels played hard in the loss.
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Scoring for Moose Lake Area were Jake Granfors, Drew Gamst and Danial Anderson.
"We thought for a while that Granfors had broken his ribs, but he wouldn't come out of the game. He just said, 'I am here to play' and he wouldn't come out of the game," explained Liimitainen. "Anderson is a very good player and has 16 goals and 10 assists."
As it is, Granfors' ribs were not broken, but he did suffer a painful injury in the rib area.
Logan McCallister, a sophomore, has been impressive and finished the game with 35 saves on 43 shots.
- In their semifinal game the Rebels downed Minneapolis East 3-1 after trailing 1-0 at the end of one period.
Scott Reiser scored in the second and Anderson picked up two goals in the third period in leading the Rebels on offense. In goal McCallister made 26 saves on 27 shots.
- MLA opened the tournament with a 5-4 overtime victory over North Branch as Ethan Skog made 23 saves to gain the win in goal.
"Ethan came out last season and had never skated before," recalled Liimitainen. "He is an unbelievable leader and he roots for Logan (McCallister) when he is playing. Ethan is the best leader you could ask for."
North Branch scored three goals and led 3-0 after the first period, but the Rebels stormed back with a goal by Dustin Rhea in the second and goals by Danial Anderson, Drew Gamst and Luke Milczark in the third period to tie the game.
In overtime Gamst picked up the game winner at 4:21 with Anderson assisting.
"This is a great group of kids and I love their personality," mentioned Liimitainen. "All in all, this is a fun group to work with and they want to get better."
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The Rebels are now 3-8 on the season.
Pine Journal sports reporter Kerry Rodd can be contacted at: kdrodd@aol.com .
