Hockey Bears keep drive for state tourney alive

John Oren

It was on to the semifinal round of the Section 8-A Tournament for the Lake of the Woods hockey team, following a surprisingly difficult quarter final round win over Kittson Central Friday (Feb. 27) night.
Lake of the Woods faced the not-so-easy chore of playing an excellent East Grand Forks team at East Grand Forks Monday (March 1) night. Those two teams tied at 3-all when they played at Baudette back on January 9.
Friday night’s final was 8-1, a relative blow-out, but the final score belied the actual play through much of the game. It was only in the third period that Lake of the Woods appeared to relax and play the open offensive game one would usually expect when you have a second seed facing a seventh seed. Shots through the first two periods favored Lake of the Woods by a bunch — 39-8 — but the score stood at 4-1 going into the last period.
Then Rainy River junior Greg Beller hit just 1:40 into the final period, and Lake of the Woods was off to the races. Darrin Becklund hit with 14:01 left in the 17 minute period, and Beller added another with 12:49 left to send the clock on running time.
Until then, it was something of a struggle.
Lake of the Woods was never behind, nor did the hockey Bears appear to be seriously threatened with getting behind. Still, the expected blow-out never really materialized until the very end.
Brent Olson got Lake of the Woods on the board just 1:40 into the game, as he and first-liners Becklund and Grant Slick combined on a picture play for the Bears’ first goal. Not quite four minutes later, Slick was still on the ice on a line change when senior and third-line member Jordan Block broke for the Kittson Central net. Slick hit him with a perfectly-placed pass, and it was a 2-0 game with 11:36 left. Then Rainy River freshman Jeremy Beller hit for the Bears with 1:43 left, and it was a 3-0 game at the end of the opening period.
Scoring was even in a so-so second period, though the play was anything but that. Becklund made it 4-0 with 8:16 left in that middle period, but Joel Deere of Kittson Central beat Lake of the Woods junior netminder Tanner Wightman with only 3:16 left. That made it a 4-1 game, and that’s how the period ended.
Lake of the Woods dominated the second period, though the score failed to show it. Shots in that middle period favored the hockey Bears 20-4, after the Bears held a 19-4 advantage in the first 17 minutes.
In the third, it was mostly a matter of wearing down Kittson Central goalie Brant Johnson. After facing those 20 second period shots, Johnson had to contend with 16 in the final period. Four of them got through this time, as Lake of the Woods’ passes appeared just a bit more crisp than they had been earlier in the game. Greg Beller hit the final goal with 6:32 left, and Lake of the Woods owned the 8-1 win.
While Lake of the Woods had struggled in a 5-1 win at Hallock in the first game of the season back on December 2, the Bears cruised to a 13-1 win in the rematch at Baudette on Feb. 10.
Reid Hutunen picked up the lone assist on Deere’s goal for Kittson Central. Josh Johnson started in the nets and had 16 saves in the opening period, and Brant Johnson finished up with 31 in the second and third for a team total of 47 saves for Kittson Central goalies.
Lake of the Woods’ second line, an all-Rainy River group, has turned into a scoring machine in the last part of the season. Friday night, it struck for four of Lake of the Woods’ eight goals.
Greg Beller had a four point night, hitting three goals and assisting on another. Ryan McInerney finished with three assists, and Jeremy Beller scored.
From there, it was the first line with three goals and third-liner Jordan Block with one. Becklund finished with two goals and an assist, and Olson added two assists to his goal. Grant Slick finished with two assists. Defensemen Brett Nylander and Aaron Gens also picked up two assists each.
Kittson Central closed out a very creditable season with an 11-11 record, and Lake of the Woods improved to 22-3-1 going into what amounts to an East Grand Forks home playoff game, despite the fact that Lake of the Woods is the higher seed.