Bayside Chatter: Dec. 7

• New alliance

Last week, the North Shore boys’ hockey team showed that a Silver Bay-Two Harbors combination is a force to be reckoned with. They charged past Proctor to start off the season with a win. Here, the boys celebrate one of the four points they scored last Tuesday night on their home rink. Photo: Jill Innis

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Girls’ hockey team scores first win of the season

It took Hibbing just 37 seconds to take the lead on their way to a 7-1 victory at Rukavina Arena. The Bluejackets dominated from start to finish with a huge advantage in puck possession. It was obvious that the Bluejackets had not forgotten that it was the Mariners who ended their season last year. They raced out to a 5-0 lead after goals from Erin Scovill, Katie Dye, Raini Heyblom and two-time scorer, Mallorie Iozzo.

Nicole DeBoom and Gina Marsalla made the score 7-0 before the Mariners answered with a goal from Rebecca Dilley. Cassie Swanson stopped 16 Bluejacket shots in the first period and Sara Carman made 31 more in relief. Amanda Klennert had to make only 9 stops for Hibbing.

Head Coach Mike Guzzo said the girls will be focusing on offense practices, hoping they can put some more shots on net in the coming games.

“We’re a low-scoring team. That’s our biggest problem. Our goaltending has been really good,” Guzzo said.

Two days later the Mariners picked up their first victory of the season with a 4-3 victory at Superior. Anna Carman scored two goals and added two assists to go with four assists from Rebecca Dilley to lead the Mariners. The Mariners jumped out to a 2-0 after two power play goals from Carman. Brooke McMillen's first varsity goal made it 3-1 after two periods.

A power play goal from Rachel Dilley with 11:08 left to play proved to be the game winner. The Spartans scored twice with goals from Ari Jago and Kari Miller to make it 4-3 with 1:15 left to play, but the Mariners held on for the win as Cassie Swanson shut the door and finished the game with 22 saves. Payton Michaud and Justine Stenberg combined for 26 stops in the Spartan nets.

The next evening saw the Mariners suffer a tough 2-1 overtime loss to the Grantsburg/Webster/Siren Blizzard at Lake County Arena. The Mariners led 1-0 after one as they ran the high to perfection.

Rebecca Dilley won the draw and got the puck back to Madison Roy who bounced forward off the boards to Anna Carman who went in alone and slipped the puck past a prone goaltender. Paige Johnson tied it up in period two on a slap shot from the point. A screened Swanson didn’t see the puck until it was too late. Kassie Lien ended things at 1:47 of the overtime period with a short breakaway. Swanson finished with 37 saves and Hope Tucker had 23 stops for the Blizzard.

Guzzo said the next few games will be tough—they’ll be challenging Chisago Lakes Area again, to whom they lost in the 2012 section final, as well as the Duluth Northern Stars, the St. Cloud Icebreakers and Princeton.

“We need to keep playing good defense and hopefully the goals will start coming,” Guzzo said.

North Shore boys start off strong

The North Shore boys’ hockey team got off to a successful start with a 4-1 win over the Proctor Rails. Brad Rowlee scored twice along with goals from Luke Small and Jonah Koehler. Small also had two assists in the game. Brodie Nordquist scored the Rails’ singular goal. Zack Duresky picked up the win with 32 saves as North Shore was outshot 33-19 by the Rails.

“The game went well. The boys were very excited to finally play. It was great to see the amount of fan support that showed up and we hope that continues throughout the season,” Co-Head Coach Shawn Bartlette said.

“We have a team expectation of finding a way to get better every day, whether it is in practice or a game. (In the upcoming games), we expect to build off our last games success and correct some of the errors we made in the first game,” he added.

The North Shore team still doesn’t have a mascot. Fans on www.mnhockeyhub.com weighed in recently, offering suggestions like Steelheads, Skippers or Nor-Easters.

With victories already over Chisago Lakes, Proctor/Hermantown and Princeton, Hibbing has just about wrapped up the number one seed in Section 7A. The Hibbing boys and Duluth Marshall played Tuesday night which is also likely to help determine the rankings.

The number one ranked teams in the state in high school hockey are Minnetonka and Warroad for the girls and Benilde/St. Margaret's and St. Thomas Academy for the boys. All four are defending state champions.

Reporter LaReesa Sandretsky contributed to this report.

Tags: silver bay, two harbors, lake county, sports, hockey