CEC Girls Shut Out Eveleth-Gilbert

Chris Shevich-NSO

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Jan 5

Kerry Rodd-NSO

CLOQUET – Statistics can sometimes be misleading and Tuesday night the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls hockey team proved that point in their 2-0 win over Eveleth-Gilbert at the Cloquet Area Recreation Center.

According to team stats the Golden Bears out shot their opponents almost 2-to-1 on average, while the CEC Lumberjacks face the opposite end of the spectrum. Tuesday night, the Jacks held a 35-13 shot advantage and manhandled the Golden Bears in a 2-0 CEC win.

The only goal CEC would need happened on a goal mouth scramble in front of Golden Bears goalie Vicky Fossland at 5:31 of the second period when Melissa Clark found a rebound and rammed it home. Clark was the recipient of the hard work of her linemates Dalyce Gustafson and Courtney Esse, who flipped three shots on Fossland before Clark cleaned up their handy work and powered the goal into the net for a 1-0 lead. Through two periods the Jacks held an 18-12 shot edge, but the third period was all CEC.

While the shot margin was not huge after two periods, the Jacks defense was still impressive as CEC goalie Sarah Gustafson had only one tough save the entire game. Almost all other shots by the Golden Bears came from long range with plenty of room for Gustafson to see the puck.

In the third period, the Jacks bottled up the Golden Bears and allowed only one shot by E-G and that didn’t come until 4:35 remained in regulation. CEC outshot the Golden Bears 17-1 in the period and the final goal of the game was scored when Caitlin Lilly one-timed a pass from Emily Gustafson past Fossland for a 2-0 lead at the 14:42 mark of the period.

The win by CEC snapped a Golden Bears’ seven-game win streak and gives the Jacks a three-game win streak of their own. The Jacks will next travel to Blaine on Thursday night.

CEC is now 8-5-3 on the season, while the Golden Bears fall to 12-4-1 overall.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com

Kerry Rodd can be reached at Kerry@northlandsportsonline,.com