Posted: 1/5/05
Rangers skate to 2nd place in Blaine
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Joe Drennan
Sports Editor
After falling to host Blaine in their first game of the Bengal Classic, the Forest Lake High School boys hockey team bounced back to win the next two games and claim second place in the tournament.
ěThe line of Christian Fogerty, Blake Woodward and Tom Kubes sort of broke out,î Rangers head coach Carl Brandt said. ěIf you include the Brainerd game, they had close to 30 points between the three of them. Thatís really good because I think thatís where weíre going to get most of our goals.î
In the opening game, the Rangers and Blaine exchanged goals in the first period, but Blaine lit up the score board with four goals compared to only one Rangers goal. In the third period both teams again exchanged a goal with the final being 6-3 in favor of Blaine.
Kenny Rivet had one goal for the Rangers. Woodward scored the other two Rangers goals. Senior goalie Brandon Neujahr stopped 29 Blaine shots in the game.
The next day of the tournament was a barn burner as the Rangers beat St. Paul Como Park 7-6.
The Rangers jumped out to an early 4-0 first period lead, but St. Paul Como Park outscored the Rangers 3-2 in the second period and 3-1 in the third to keep things tense for the Rangers.
Both Fogerty and Kubes had two goals in the game for the Rangers, and Patrick Fogerty, Mark Moberg and Jack Walker had one goal.
In the third and final game of the round robin tournament, the Rangers needed to win to be in contention to place in the top three. The Rangers did just that, but earned a bonus point by shutting out Champlin Park 6-0.
Three goals in the first, one in the second and two more in the third made for an easy day for the Rangers.
Kubes and Walker each had two goals in the game with Patrick and Christian Fogerty each scoring one goal. Neujahr earned the shutout as he stopped all 16 Champlin Park shots. The victory secured second place in the tournament for the Rangers.
ěThat game can be marked by a pretty flawless effort on everybodyís part,î Brandt said. ěIt was probably our best game when we put it all together and we were pretty dominating.î
Brandt was also impressed with his teams power play and penalty killing units as they killed off 100 percent of the penalties in two of the three games and scored six power play goals in the tournament.
The Rangers next game is today, Thursday, at Mounds View at 7:30 p.m.
ěOur next five games are all teams that we should compete really well against and we should win most of them,î Brandt said.
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