Boys Win!

December 19

And following girls basketball, I finally made it to a boys hockey game as well . . . 

[Yes, I know I said boys hockey.  But I couldn’t get far enough away from it to get the whole poster of the boys team.  Once again the amazing work of Mark Ripley . . . ]

[The pre-game captains meeting – our forever No. 1 rivals, the Fergus Falls Otters . . . ]

[The National Anthem line up . . . ]

[And the Cardinals are off and flying with junior Cole Walters (29) and sophomore Josiah Gronholz (8) and, I suspect, at the bottom junior Grant Rebrovich (20) . . . ]

[Senior captain Derek Pesta (5), following a great football season, with the speedy Joe Westlund (10) . . . ]

[Face-off in the Otter zone . . . ]

[The Westlund line with senior captain Caleb Strong (3) . . . ]

[Caleb on a breakway . . . ]

[He went to the backhand and scored the first goal of the game, shorthanded . . . ]

[And he’s totally excited about it . . . ]

[Josiah taking the face-off . . . ]

[And then circling into the offensive zone . . . ]

[Junior Jacob Partington (7) and sophomore Brennan Lattimer (12) . . . ]

[Contrary to likely first impressions, sophomore Pieter Mulder (38) is not related to the Boy Tenor . . . ]

[Cards 2nd goal was scored by senior Shane Birkeland (25) . . . ]

[The Gronholz line in the Otters’ end . . . ]

[And young Mr. Mulder did something bad and has to sit in the corner . . . ]

[Waters and Pesta, with Walters appearing to defy gravity . . . ]

[OK, more Gronholz.  Can’t help myself.  They only live about a block from our Lake Darling home and Grandpa Gronholz comes to all the games . . . ]

[And I think Josiah is tied for the team lead in points.  He just seems to have a knack . . . ]

[And to score, it helps to hang around the opponents goal . . . ]

[Been a big fan of Caleb’s for 3 – 4 years.  He has great hands . . . ]

[Here he’s skipping past a teammate who’s trying to stay onside . . . ]

[New entries include senior Nathaniel Mulder (9) and sophomore James Schwatz (24).]

[And Josiah wraps up the period on the attack . . . ]

[A rather pedestrian 1st period, but we had the lead . . . ]

[Future Cardinals entertained between periods . . . ]

[You should notice I’ve changed positions for the 2nd period . . . ]

[So I can get up close and personal with our Cards – here’s Caleb . . . ]

[Being hounded by those bad Otters . . . ]

[Holy smoke, there’s Josiah again.  Seriously, I’m shooting randomly . . . ]

[Gotta be tough to win face-offs . . . ]

[Looks like the bench is into it . . . ]

[Joe Westlund and Joe Gronholz in the offensive zone . . . ]

[The Cards did a lot of zone swarming in this period . . . ]

[Caleb and Joe . . . ]

[Our first look at senior Carsten Wessel (17) . . . ]

[With our football quarterback, senior Matthew Carlsen (26) . . . ]

[And Josiah got in with this group too . . . ]

[Caleb snaps off a wristshot . . . ]

[Senior Andrew Revering (2) is in with Joe Westlund . . . ]

[Westlund moves to . . . ]

[Join the celebration of . . . ]

[The Cardinals third goal by Derek . . . ]

[Then Josiah got the 4th goal . . . ]

[Senior Joe Bigger (6) on defense . . . ]

[Josiah and . . . ]

[Linemate Grant . . . ]

[Finishing with some parting shots of Joe . . . ]

[Who may be the team’s fastest skater . . . ]

[The game was now well in hand.  I left to listen to the girls’ hockey game, a 5-0 win also against Fergus, and watch the Gopher volleyball game.  The Cards must have taken their foot of the metal in the third period, but won 4 – 2.  The Cards are now 8 – 2 on the season.]

Statistics are like bikinis—they show a lot but not everything.  ~  Lou Piniella

Up Next:  Washington, D.C.