Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

Itís just one game for the girlsí hockey team, but after a 7-3 victory over Proctor on Saturday, Nov. 11, there is reason to believe the Rangers can put together a strong season.

Penalties by both teams set the tone at the start of the game, but once Forest Lake adjusted to the quick whistles, they rattled off five goals in a 10 minute stretch and entered the first intermission with a 5-1 lead.

Head coach Paul Kendrick was pleased with the way his group altered its play to the tighter calls, and was surprised with how smooth they looked.

ìWe really were moving the puck as well, if not better than I had seen our team move it over last year,î he said.

Once the penalty-fest slowed down, Forest Lake got on the board with two equal strength goals less than two minutes from each other. Senior Kyla Lindstrom scored the first goal of the season on an assist from 8th grader Audrey Hanmer, and then junior Kelsey Blum finished off the passing from Alexa and Miranda Nelson to quickly make it 2-0.

Three minutes later, senior captain Alexa Nelson used the assists of Kate Haglund and Torri Shelafoe ó the Gray Line, as Kendrick calls those three ó and scored on the first of three power play goals for the Rangers.

That is fairly significant considering Kendrick says it took Forest Lake nearly three-quarters of the 2005 season to notch their first power play goal. So take that off the To Do list for this year.

ìOur special teams really did a pretty good job,î Kendrick said.

After a Ranger penalty, Proctor was able to get one past Cassi Carpenter and avoid being shutout through the first 17 minutes.

Forest Lake came right back at the start of the second period when Lindstrom took a pass from sophomore Ashley Grell and scored her second goal of the afternoon, which was also the teams second on a power play.

Less than two minutes later, junior Miranda Nelson and freshman Charise Kendrick set up another Crudo goal to make it 7-1 and put the game out of reach.

With Carpenter in front of the net, seven goals by Proctor would be an unlikely scenario. Much like their first goal, Proctor scored late in the second period and also got one in with just three seconds left in the third to bring the game to the final score of 7-3.

Proctor didnít lose very often last year and they were seeded higher than Forest Lake in the sections, so the convincing win was a plus for coach Kendrick.

ìI was actually expecting probably a tighter game,î he said. ìWe had scoring from all three lines so we had a very balanced approach.î

Beyond the Gray Line, Kendrick also liked what he saw from the trio of Crudo, Paige Patchin and Blum, which he has dubbed the Red Line.

ìI thought their line did a nice job of pressuring and forechecking the puck.î

A balanced attack, forechecking, special teams and solid defense sounds like a winning combination, but coach Kendrick is not about to get carried away with a 1-0 record.

ìFor a first game we did a lot of nice things. My caution is there were several things that we need to improve on against quality teams.î

The improvement continued on Tuesday night when the Rangersí hosted Cambridge-Isanti, and then have Chisago Lakes in town on Thursday, Nov. 16. Thatís not a bad way to warm up for next Tuesdayís trip over to Stillwater.

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