Posted: 2/18/04

Rangers win three in a row

Joe Drennan
Sports Editor

The Forest Lake Boys Hockey team strung together their first three-game winning streak this week with victories over Stillwater, Park (Cottage Grove), and Cloquet.

The Rangers began their winning week with senior night last Thursday against Stillwater. The Rangers capitalized in a Stillwater penalty 5:46 into the game when Tommy Kubes took a pass from Christian Fogerty and scored. Kubes and Fogerty hooked up again at 4:25 of the second period to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead. Matt Fredrickson struck twice for the Rangers midway through the third period, and Joe Lindeberg capped off a 5-0 Rangers victory.

Rangers senior goalie Dustin Carlson helped preserve the victory by stopping all 24 Stillwater shots.

ìI think the seniors all sort of bellied up and said weíre going to play a good game and they did,î Rangers head coach Carl Brandt said. ìIt was one of the better exhibitions of teamwork that we have had in a while and they put the puck in the net. It was a confidence booster for everybody I think.î

Two nights later the Rangers traveled to Park (Cottage Grove) where they picked up where they left off with Stillwater.

The Rangers erupted for five first period goals, then added one more in the third for a 6-0 win, and back-to-back shutouts. Rangers goals came from Foggerty, Tyler Rife, Dan Guenther, and Kayle Lewellen had three for a hat-trick.

The Rangers kept the ball rolling as they played their last home game of the season in a rare Monday night game against Cloquet.

Cloquet struck first just 4:26 into the first period, but Matt Fredrickson evened things up in the second period off a pass from Joe Lindeberg. Rife put the Rangers ahead at 7:17 of the third period, but Cloquet fought back and tied the game almost three minutes later. At 12:35, Matt Fredrickson and Joe Lindeberg were rushing down the ice on a two-on-one when Fredrickson fed Lindeberg the puck. Lindeberg had the open net and easily slid the puck in for the lead.

ìWe came out flat then the team decided they wanted to play at a different level and they stepped it up a notch,î Brandt said. ìI think it sort of hit home that some of them might not be playing there [the Maroon and Gold Arena] anymore.î

With the recent success of the Rangers some may wonder why they couldnít have played this way all year, but Brandt says there are a number of things working in favor of the Rangers. One positive that has inevitably helped the Rangers is that they are injury free after some players were out of the lineup with injuries or colds, the other being team chemistry.

ìThere is a lot of subtleties to this, just the little passes they are making, everything is sort of going on their sticks, the little things are happening,î Brandt said.

The Rangers play Woodbury today, Thursday, to end their regular season, then head to sections where they could possibly face-off against Cloquet again.

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