CEC Boys Come Up Short Against Thunderhawks

Jan 19

Kerry Rodd-NSO

On Tuesday night the
Grand Rapids
Thunderhawks came out flying against the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton Lumberjacks, defeating CEC 6-2 at the Cloquet Area Recreation Center.

Three first period goals gave the Thunderhawks a lead that they would never relinquish. Matt Soderstrom scored at 5:05, Jace Louma added another goal at 7:31 and Travis Underwood tallied a goal at 9:20 of the first period, easing GR out to a 3-0 lead. After the three goals, CEC changed goaltenders in an effort to spark the team to a higher caliber of play as Boyd Smith entered the game for talented sophomore John Scheuer.

Trailing 3-0 in the second period, the Jacks gave up another goal by Dustin Perron before Corbin Morse tipped in a shot by Tony Wilcox at 14:33 to cut the lead to 4-1. However, the Jacks gave up an untimely goal less than a minute later and left the second period trailing 5-1.

Connor Tollerud made a nifty move to score at 11:47 of the third period with assists going to Chaise Jokinen and Tyler Tollerud.
Yet, as was the case all night, the Thunderhawks responded with a score of their own by Patrick Moore at the 14:30 mark pushing their lead back to four goals at 6-2.

The Thunderhawks did a nice job of moving the puck quickly and adeptly against the Jacks and never allowed CEC to get into a good offensive flow.

For the game, Dom DeGuiseppi made 22 saves on 24 shots for the Thunderhawks, while Scheuer made 5 saves and Smith made 29 saves for a total of 34 saves on 40 shots for the Lumberjacks.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com