Proctor Gets Big Section 5A Playoff Win

Feb 23

Kerry Rodd-NSO

The re-emergence of the Proctor Rails hockey team took a big step forward on Tuesday night as they dispatched the Pine City-Rush City Dragons 5-2 in the first round of the Section 5A playoffs.

Zach Swanson scored a pair of goals for the Dragons in the first period at 7:19 and 9:55, but sandwiched in between those goals was a tally by Proctor’s Jordy Carlson at 7:41. The score was 2-1 in favor of PC/RC after the opening stanza.

The Rails took over the game with three goals in the second period, the first coming from Carlson at 2:50 with the assist going to Justin Scanlon. At 10:12 it was Cody Gauthier scoring a power play goal for the Rails as they took the lead 3-2 with the assist going to Tyler Pionk. Pionk made it 4-2 at 16:05 on another power play goal with Tom Rossiter and Charlie Kratt assisting.

Scoring ended with just 24 seconds remaining in regulation when Pionk scored into the empty net, giving the Rails a 5-2 edge.

The Rails outshot the Dragons 37-19 for the game as Proctor goalie, Derek Robinson, finished with 17 saves.

Proctor now moves on to face #3 seed St. Cloud Cathedral at 7:00 pm on Thursday at the St. Cloud Municipal Athletic Complex in St. Cloud.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com