Lumberjacks Blanked By Duluth East

Wes Vork-NSO

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Dec 15, 2011

Kerry Rodd-NSO

The Thunderbirds are a precision flying team that makes appearances around the world, they make a living by precise movement that is choreographed to the point they make it look easy. The Duluth East hockey team showed similar precision in their tic-tac-toe style passing game in beating Cloquet-Esko-Carlton 7-0 on Thursday night in Cloquet at Northwoods Credit Union Arena.

The Greyhounds came in as the #1 ranked boys hockey team in the state and showed why with brilliant passing and, had CEC goalie John Scheuer not played equally as brilliant, the scoreboard might have had a couple more lights on it on the East side.

Dom Toninato, who finished with a pair of goals and three assists, started the scoring at 13:31 of the first p
eriod with assists going to Ryan Lundgren and Jake Randolph. Randolph followed with a goal at 15:25, with the first of his three goals; assists went to Meiers Moore and Toninato. Things could have been worse after the first period for the Jacks who were outshot in the period 20-2 had Scheuer not been up to the task, but as it was they were still in the thick of things trailing East only 2-0.

The Greyhounds added two more goals in the second period by Hogan Davidson and Randolph to gain a 4-0 edge entering the final stanza. Through the early part of their schedule the Lumberjacks had used the second period to jump-start their offense, but they were unable to do that against the skilled Greyhounds. However, unlike past games the Jacks were outshot handily in the second period as East tossed 20 more shots on CEC netminder Scheuer and through two periods the Greyhounds led 4-0 on the scoreboard and had a 40-5 advantage in shots on goal.

Phil Beaulieu, Randolph and Toninato all scored for the Greyhounds in the final period to make the final 7-0.

For the game the Greyhounds outshot CEC 51-14 as Scheuer finished with 44 saves for the Jacks, while East goalie Dylan Parker stopped all 14 shots to notch the shutout.

The win improves East’s record to 7-0 and CEC falls to 5-3. The Jacks will be back in action on Tuesday when they host the Ashland Oredockers.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com