Jacks lose close one to Eagles

Cloquet-Esko-Carlton has proven all year that, despite being a young and inexperienced group, they have the tenacity to hang with some of the top teams in the state in boys hockey.  On Friday night the Jacks hung tough with the #10 ranked team in Class AA the Eden Prarie Eagles, but the result was a tough 4-2 loss which included an empty net goal with just a few seconds left.

  Playing on the road the Jacks played an even first period with the Eagles, but then fell behind 2-0 in the second period when EP scored at 3:26 and 8:45.  CEC bounced back with a goal of their own from James Newgren at the 15:55 mark of the second period with an assist to Koby Bender that cut the gap down to 2-1 entering the final period.

  At 5:05 of the third period the Eagles went up 3-1 when Steven Spinner got a shot past CEC goalie Zack Strom, but Newgren answered that for CEC at the 15:53 mark with assists to Ryan Lind and Hunter Roberts on the power play.  The Eagles finally finished off the Jacks at 16:22 of the final period when Graham Schmidt buried an empty net goal for the final of 4-2.

  Strom finished with 32 saves for the Jacks, while EP goaltender Jake Gerdes finished with 15 saves.

  The loss drops the Jacks overall record to 5-9-1 while the Eagles improved to 9-4-1.