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Friday, February 18, 2005
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Warriors win fifth straight BHS confident after win over St. Paul Humboldt Sports Writer
They weren't supposed to be this good, but the Brainerd Warriors are proving many wrong.
The Warriors dispatched the St. Paul Humboldt Hawks floor hockey team 4-1 at Riverside Elementary Thursday to secure their fifth-straight victory. The win moves Brainerd's record to 6-2 with four games remaining.
"For the team the confidence is real high," said sophomore goalie Andy Herold. "In me, I don't think the confidence could be any higher than right now. Coming off a huge win against South Suburban (Tuesday), who was undefeated, and now this win really lifts the spirits."
Goalies Herold and Joe Casselman captured 12 saves including a six-save, first-period shutout.
"I was just glad we could stay in it," said Herold. "They put some real good pressure on us at the end of the second and end of the third periods. I'm glad we stuck in there.
Warriors 3, Humboldt 1
The key: Two goals each from Jacob Ray and Nathan Puchalla and 12 saves from Andy Herold and Joe Casselman. BHS is 6-2 on the season.
Next game: at Rochester, 6 p.m. Tuesday
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"It was hard. I really thought they had the advantage a lot of the time. But I'm glad we stayed in there and we did our best."
The goalie duo also shutout the Hawks in the second period.
Brainerd's offense stirred up in the second as well. Nathan Puchalla scored the first of his two goals. The sophomore wing wrapped the puck around the net and through the defense.
Three minutes later Jacob Ray slapped home his second goal of the game.
Ray's first goal in the first period also was a slap shot from about 20 feet out. The two goals give him 15 for the season and 27 points.
"Jacob is out on the wing and all of a sudden he snaps off the shot and it's right there," said Brainerd coach Bruce Thompson. "He's really seeing that shot. That's where he played last year is that right wing."
Ray, a junior wing, along with Ethan Rudbeck assisted on Puchalla's second goal in the third period to end the scoring.
Puchalla's goal pushes his season total to 27 goals and seven assists. Rudbeck now leads the team with 17 assists. He has 21 total points.
The Hawks lone goal came off a face off in the third period. Herold said he thought he had it, but missed judged the puck by inches.
"I was seeing the floor pretty well and I didn't get screened a lot," Herold said. "On the goal he shot it up and over. It was right over my helmet. It was just a misjudgment."
Brainerd has outscored its last five opponents 34-10. Thompson credits his two goalies and defender Amanda Albertson.
"We have a little different defense with the two chairs and a walker defender," said Thompson. "We're really counting on Andy and Joe to play well. It hasn't been easy for those two to get things organized. Sometimes their chairs are stacked, but we want them to cause a wall out there.
"Our chairs kept us in the game (Thursday)."
This was the first time Brainerd defeated Humboldt in five attempts since beating them in the 2000 state championship.
"I think we're kind of pleasantly surprised," said Thompson. "We graduated a lot of good kids last year. With the addition of a few players this year things have started to come together. Maybe even more than what we expected."
St. Paul Humboldt 0 0 1 -- 1
Brainerd 1 2 1 -- 4
First period -- 1, Brd-Jacob Ray (unassisted) 9:44
Second period -- 2, Brd-Nate Puchalla (unassisted) 4:21; 3, Brd-Ray (Ethan Rudbeck) 1:45
Third period -- 4, Brd-Bryan Sjoquist (Vickie Haskins) 7:32; 5, Brd-Puchalla (Rudbeck, Ray) 1:19
Shots on goal -- B 3 8 5 -- 16, SPH 5 2 6 -- 13
JEREMY MILLSOP can be reached at jeremy.millsop@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5856.
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