Boys Hockey

       Landon Cartie fired a shot into the net at 3:49 of overtime Thursday night giving the Northern Lakes Lightning a 3-2 win over Sartell and their second straight Section Championship and a berth in next weeks State Hockey Tournament. The Lightning had tied the game in the third and got the winner in the extra session sending the Sabres home with a 24-4 final record. Sartell took a 1-0 lead at 11:03 of the first on a goal by Devin Jacobs, his 38th of the season. Cartie tied the game at 3:05 of the second with his 6th goal of the year with Lucas Martin and Kyler Rikala getting the assists. Preston Deragisch gave Sartell a 2-1 lead at 4:16 sending the Sabres into the final period with a one-goal lead. Parker Fulton scored his 22nd goal of the season at 7:38 assisted by Cartie sending the game to the extra session. Cartie sent the crowd into a frenzy with his goal from in front of the net giving the Lightning the win. Sam Suja stopped 38 of 40 shots on goal and the Lightning recorded 26 shots on net.

Lightning      0 1 1 1  3

Sabres          1 1 0 0 2

       The Northern Lakes Lightning find themselves just one win away from the State Tournament, and after a State appearance last year, this time they will face the top seeded Sartell Sabres. This looks like a dream matchup on paper with both teams showing some explosive offense and excellent goaltending. The two teams met a few weeks ago and the Sabres prevailed 3-2, with leading scorer Devin Jacobs scoring two goals and Jacob Peterson and Parker Fulton each scoring for the Lightning. Jacobs has scored 37 goals for Sartell while Brayden Klande has 26 goals, Preston Deragisch adds 21 goals. Tanner Burris and Kaden Peterlin both have 9 goals on the season. Parker Fulton has 21 for the Lightning while Josiah Reier has 19, Waylon Katterhagen has 16 and Jacob Peterson has 12 on the season. Brody Potthoff spends the majority of time in the net for the Sabres, notching 4 shutouts and boasts a goals against average of 1.8 goals per game. Sam Suja is right on his heels with a GAA of 2.6 and recording 5 shutouts. The Lightning have shutouts in their last four games and have outscored the opposition 27-0 in those four contests. In fact, their last goal given up was in the Sartell game. The Sabres are 24-3 coming in while the Lightning are 16-10-1. The common opponents don't show much as both teams have beaten Alexandria, Fergus Falls, Little Falls and Willmar Kyler Rikala, Sam Suja and Parker Fulton are three important cogs in the Lightning machine and here's what they had to say about the season and the matchup coming this week.

Kyler "We knew we had what it takes to make it to the final. Now we have to be ready to play against Sartell and win another Section final. Getting to the State two years in a row will really bring our program up."
. 
Sam "Before games I like to visualize myself tracking the puck and making saves. I also like to do my stretching routine and hang out with the guys in the locker room. Focusing on my breathing also helps a lot. I believe that I have definitely grown as a goalie and team leader since last year. Although there have been highs and lows this season, overall, I am fairly satisfied with my play. Definitely still room for improvement though."

Parker “Some keys to beating Sartell; We need to play fast and physical. I think we have a very good chance to win if we play the hockey we know how to play. They don’t have experience in a Section final which is a whole different atmosphere so I’m confident we can beat them.”    

       Parker Fulton and Waylon Ketterhagen each scored twice and Sam Suja tossed another shutout in goal as the Northen Lakes Lightning advanced to the Section Championship game with a 6-0 win Saturday over Willmar at the MAC in St. Cloud. The win puts the Lightning in the title game at the MAC Thursday night against top-seeded Sartell, a 5-1 winner over Little Falls in the other semifinal. The Lightning took a 3-0 lead in the first period. Katterhagen scored at 14:40, his 15th goal of the season with Landon Cartie getting the assist. Huck Balmer scored at 8:02 from Josiah Reier to make it 2-0, his 6th goal of the year. Cartie scored his 5th goal of the season at 6:58 from Lucas Martin and the Lightning had their 3-0 lead after one. Fulton had both goals in the second period. He scored at 4:24 from Reier abd Sutton Sullivan and then scored his 21st of the season from Reier and Sullivan at :34, a goal that broke the Cardinals back. Katterhagen scored his second of the night and 16th of the season from Cartie and Martin to end the scoring at 14:00 of the third.  Suja recorded his 5th shutout of the season, stopping all 15 shots he faced while the Lightning recorded 49 shots on goal.

Cardinals  0 0 0 0

Lightning   3 2  1 6    

      The #2 seed Northern Lakes Lightning will match up with the #6 Willmar Cardinals Saturday at 7:00 at the MAC in St. Cloud in the Section 6A semifinals with a berth in the Section title game on the line. The Lightning beat Breckenridge/Wahpeton 6-0 Tuesday while the Cardinals upset #3 Fergus Falls 4-2. Josiah Reier had a pair of goals in the Lightning win while Cooper Lownsbury had two goals to lead Willmar. Here are the top scorers for these two teams going into the game Saturday.

Willmar-12-14
Gibson Horyza-20 goals
Luke Larson-19 goals
Blake Grimsley-13 goals
Max Garberding-10 goals

Lightning-15-10-1
Josiah Reier-19 goals
Parker Fulton-19 goals
Waylon Katterhagen-14 goals
Jacob Peterson-12 goals

     Both teams count on their goalkeepers. Sam Suja has 4 shutouts on the season with a goals against average of 2.7. He had 19 stops Tuesday in the win over the Blades. Eli Ewert has a goals against average of 4.3 for the Cardinals and had 34 saves in the win over the Otters.

     The top seeded Sartell Sabres will take on #4 Little Falls at 4:00 Saturday followed by the Lightning-Cardinals matchup.   

       Josiah Reier scored twice and Parker Fulton added three assists as the Northern Lakes Lightning opened the Section 6A playoffs with a 6-0 shutout of the Breckenridge-Wahpeton Blades. Sam Suja stopped 19 shots and recorded his 4th shutout of the season. Reier opened the scoring at 13:56 of the first with his 18th goal of the season assisted by Fulton. The Lightning took a 2-0 lead at 12:50 of the second on a goal by Leyton Cable, his 2nd of the season, with Huck Balmer and Reier getting the assists. They scored again at 1:56, this time it was Jacob Peterson with his 12th with Kyler Rikala and Garrett Furry with the helpers. Three goals in the third put the game away. Sutton Sullivan scored at 9:21, his 2nd of the season, Fulton getting the assist and then they scored twice in 24 seconds near the end. Griffen Hannah scored at 1:33 from Furry and Peterson. It was his 3rd of the season and then Reier scored from Balmer and Fulton to close it out at 1:09. Coach T.K. after the win, "We played a solid game. Sam picked up his 4th shutout and three seniors, Peterson, Sullivan and Furry all scored in their final game at Breezy."

Blades       0 0 0 0

Lightning   1 2  3 6

      The Section 6A boys hockey playoffs have their quarterfinal round on Tuesday and the Northern Lakes Lightning are the #2 seed behind Sartell. They will meet Breckenridge/Wahpeton with the winner moving on to the semifinals at the MAC in St. Cloud on Saturday. The Blades come in with a r4ecord of 10-13-1 while the Lightning are 14-10-1. Looking at the common opponents, the advantage should go to the Lightning, but they aren't looking past anybody at this point. The Lightning beat Little Falls twice while the Blades split a pair of games with the Flyers. Northern Lakes just walloped Becker-Big Lake 11-0 while the Blades lost twice to the Eagles. The Lightning beat Fergus Falls 3-2 and the Blades lost twice to Fergus but by scores of 3-2 and 4-2. The Blades' leading scorer is Easton Neppl who has scored 16 goals on the season along with 25 assists. Jaxson Lopez has 15 goals and 22 assists; Gracin Kaste has 16 goals and 16 assists and Josh Hoffman has 10 goals and 13 assists. Cale Gilbertson has been in goal for all but 30 minutes this season and has a goals against average of 3.2, an 87% save percentage. The Lightning continues to be led in goal scoring by Parker Fulton with 19, Josiah Reier with 17, Waylon Katterhagen with 14 and Jacob Peterson with 11. Sam Suja has been solid in goal with 3 shutouts this season. The playoffs are a different time, and all the teams start at 0-0 so the Lightning have to be ready and I'm sure Coach T.K. will have this crew locked and loaded for this matchup. He reviewed the season to this point, "Heading into the season, I believed we would be a team that would be very competitive and we would improve over the course of the season. I also believed, given the scoring talent that graduated and the schedule we had may end the season a few games over .500. We played 5 AA teams and some of the best teams in Class A.
   The most rewarding aspects of the season are twofold. 1. We have improved as a team in terms of structure, systems of play and playing connected. This includes reducing penalties as the season has progressed. We have also had 4 overtime games, winning 3 and tying one. The most memorable games have been quite dramatic. In Chisago Lakes we were down 5-3 with 5 minutes to go in the game. We scored 3 goals in 91 seconds and left with a 6-5 win but only after we took a penalty and Chisago pulled their goalie with 1:40 on the clock. The ensuing 6 on 4 was a combination of great penalty killing and exceptional goaltending by junior goalie Sam Suja.  The other dramatic game was overcoming 3-1 and 4-2 deficits at East Grand Forks. Down 4-2 going into the 3rd, junior Josiah Reier scored 3 goals in 81 seconds to lead the team to a 6-4 win. Everyone involved will never forget games like that. For the program including youth hockey, it marked the first time a Northern Lakes team had won over EGF. After the win over EGF, Loren Nelson of Legacy Hockey sent a text to the team calling us: "Team Rope a Dope" The same can be said of the 1-0 win over Bemidji. That goal came with 0:31 left in OT. Sam Suja had 40 saves in the first program win over the Lumberjacks. The greatest challenge the team has faced and has shown improvement in is consistency. We started the year playing 2 solid periods. In recent weeks, we're starting to play better in all three periods. To advance through the 6A playoffs we need to continue our season-long push to play with high energy, speed and team connected structure."

     The Section 6A playoffs are upon us and the Lightning faithful are ready to cheer their team to victory. Gametime is 6:00 Tuesday!

     The Northern Lakes Lightning finished off the regular season Saturday with a 4-0 shutout of the visiting Red Wing Wingers. The win gives the Lightning a record of 14-10-1 heading into Section play Tuesday against Breckenridge-Wahpeton at The Breezy Point Ice Arena. Damon John got the win stopping all 17 shots by the Wingers while the Lightning fired 53 shots on goal.

     The first period was scoreless, but the Lightning struck twice in the second, both goals scored by defensemen. Kyler Rikala scored his first goal of the season on a blast from the point that beat the netminder low on the stick side. Jacob Peterson and Lucas Martin got the assists. That came at 12:49 of the period and at 1:37 Nolan Hall scored his first of the season with Landon Cartie and Waylon Katterhagen getting the assists. Two goals in five seconds in the third put the Lightning out of reach. Martin scored his 8th of the year at 10:32 from Garrett Furry, and then right off the faceoff Furry scored his 8th, this one unassisted at 10:27. John did the rest in his final game in goal at home in the regular season.

Wingers    0 0 0 0

Lightning  0 2 2 4

      The Lightning JV lost a tough 2-1 decision. Vinny Przybylski gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead, assisted by Mason Otto, but the Wingers got the final two goals to pick up the win. Weston Sewall was in goal and stopped 19 of 21 shots for the Lightning while his teammates had 28 shots on goal.

Wingers     0 1 1 2

Lightning   0 1 0 1