Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

Going into Tuesday night’s Section 7AA playoff game, there are some hints that the boys hockey team is ready to do big things.

The thriving and surviving Forest Lake team was on display at Woodbury, where the Royals entered the game with a record of 18-5-1, 9-5-1, and owners of a 4-0 victory against against the Rangers in January. Woodbury also fields two of the conference’s top goaltenders, but with Paul Moberg minding the net behind the likes of Jake LaMotte and Codey Carlisle, Forest Lake (11-12-2, 6-9-1) is always a tough out.

As expected, Rangers v. Royals would not become a goal-scoring extravaganza.

Midway through the first period, Kyle Young and Andy Hardy would set up Alex Lindeberg and put Forest Lake up 1-0.

An absence of scoring for both teams in the second led to an entertaining final period, where Moberg would have to turn away 11 of a grand total of 37 shots on the night, while Woodbury’s Sam Foley would stop nine. The Royals, however, needed Foley to block 10.

Very early in the third, Woodbury would tie the game at 1-1, but then Hardy would notch the game-winner for the Rangers with more than nine minutes left in the contest.

“I tell ya, that’s the x-factor,” head coach Carl Brandt said of Moberg. “He was ‘on.’”

The more disappointing outcome came early in the week, when Cretin-Derham Hall pulled away for a 5-2 victory. But like many games this season, the final score did not tell the entire story.

In the first period, neither team would score, but Forest Lake fired off 12 shots to just six for the Raiders. That trend would completely reverse in the second, where Cretin did the outshooting 13-3, and late in the period the Raiders would pick up two goals.

Now the game would change direction.

In the first 21 seconds of the third period, CDH would go up 3-0, and then get their fourth goal at the 4:01 mark.

Later in the period, Aaron Kubes would use assists from Dan Fick and Jeff Bohnen to give the Raiders something to think about, but they didn’t have to think very long as Cretin would score again to make it 5-1.

With assists going to Lindeberg and LaMotte, Young would score for the Rangers, to bring the game to its 5-2 final.

Tuesday, Feb. 20, was the opening round of sectional play with Forest Lake traveling up to Grand Rapids.

“Talk about a hockey culture at a high school program” Brandt said. “They’ve got it.”

He said the arena reeks of history and if he had to pick a place to play in the section, it would be Grand Rapids.

If the Rangers won they would move on and compete on Saturday in Duluth, and Brandt likes how his team is playing.

“They’re ready to go. They know they have to play three solid periods of hockey.”

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