Hibbing/Chisholm outlasts Cloquet-Esko-Carlton

CLOQUET With just more than five minutes gone in the first period, Hibbing/Chisholm sophomore Cole Swanson got a pass in behind of Cloquet-Esko-Carlton goalie Jacob Iallonardo Tuesday at Northwoods Credit Union Arena. Swanson flipped the puck into the net and put the Bluejackets up two goals. They went on to win 5-2, but the game was a battle for the top-ranked team in Class A. “We had a good start,” coach Aaron Jamnick said. “We had some quick shifts, we were rolling everyone and then we got some penalty trouble and fell out of sync for a while.” Instead of keeping the pressure on the Lumberjacks, Hibbing/Chisholm picked up a couple of penalties at the end of the first and three more in the second, and CEC started to really produce chances. “I appreciated our response, especially in the second period,” CEC coach Shea Walters said. “We turned the tables big-time the ice was a little tilted and we put a lot of pressure on them and got ourselves back in the game.” Before it got better, it got worse for the Lumberjacks. With Hibbing/Chisholm still shorthanded from the first period, Swanson got loose in the CEC zone and fired a shot over Iallanardo’s shoulder to make it 3-0 with just 26 seconds gone. Swanson’s shot was one of the last opportunities the Bluejackets had in the second period. CEC outshot them 12-3 in the second, and Jordy Sewell scored about seven minutes later. The Lumberjacks’ Mason Robbins cut the lead to 3-2 4: 14 into the third period and the Bluejackets were in danger of letting the game slip away. “We got up two, we thought it was going to be easy and we lost focus,” Jamnick said. “We started turning the puck over a lot, we didn’t have high support. Our defense was letting people behind them and that’s not just going to cut it, luckily our goaltender bailed us out.” Goalie Gavin Lamphere made 23 saves for Hibbing/Chisholm, but he had been sick earlier this week and he wasn’t sure that he would play today. “I was pretty sick, but I woke up this morning and I didn’t have a headache any more,” he said. “My movements weren’t as fluid and I was running out of gas pretty early, but our boys battled. They kept me hydrated, and our managers got me water every time.” The Bluejackets are expected to be one of the best teams in Class A, but the Lumberjacks graduated more than 200 points of offense last season, including Minnesota Duluth recruit Karson Young. “We are a young team, we’re still working through the combinations that are going to work,” Walters said. “We’re still trying to figure out what’s going to make these guys go. We found that spark in the second period and even in the third we were right with them toe-to-toe but then we got into penalty trouble.” After the Robbins goal his first varsity score Hibbing/Chisholm started to put a little more pressure on and started playing “simple hockey,” according to Jamnick. Eventually, they drew two penalties that gave them 1: 05 of 5-on-3 play. The Lumberjacks killed the two-man advantage, but Ethan Sundvall scored with 1: 35 to play and Swanson completed his hat trick with an empty net goal. Jamnick said the Bluejackets got “too cute” in the middle portion of the game and when they needed to dial in on the little things. “The focus all year is just to play simple hockey, play hard hockey,” he said. “We did that, we got a two-goal lead and then we got away from that. It’s a long season, you have highs and lows but it’s a lot of simple mistakes things that right now we can fix but those should be non-negotiable things.” Hibbing/Chisholm (2-0) will next play St. Cloud Cathedral at 2 p. m. Friday at the Municipal Athletic Complex in St. Cloud. CEC (0-2) will next play at Princeton at 3 p. m. Saturday.
https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/sports/prep/hibbing-chisholm-outlasts-cloquet-esko-carlton