WILLMAR -- The Willmar Cardinals built a 4-0 lead and went on to defeat St. Cloud Apollo 4-2 in boys Central Lakes Conference hockey at the Civic Center on Tuesday.
The win came four days after a 2-0 win at Fergus Falls and gives Willmar (4-10, 8-12) its second two-game win streak of the season.
"We're improving," said coach Dan Tollefson. "Defensively, we were strong and we did some creative things offensively."
The Cardinals outshot the Eagles (2-11-1, 4-15-2) by a 35-12 margin the first two periods -- that against a team that had destroyed them 6-2 in St. Cloud on Jan. 14.
A Liam Johnston goal made it 1-0 after one and Trent Fader made it 2-0 after two. Fader tapped the puck past Andy Benson in the Eagles' net, after a quick feed from Landon Peterson.
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Grant Schow made it 3-0 on another nice goal in the third minute of the third. Peterson scored the last Willmar goal to get three points for the game.
Willmar gave up two goals in the last eight minutes. Willmar's Ben Leitch finished with 24 saves.
The Fader-Jay Bredberg-Rory Schneider line kept the Eagles' top threat Dustin Christen bottled up until the senior forward scored with just under seven minutes left in the game.
Willmar has a non-conference game at Sauk Centre vs. Prairie Centre before hosting Little Falls and its standout player Ben Hanowski on Feb. 17.
Willmar 4, SC Apollo 2
SCA (2-11-1, 4-15-2)......0 0 2 -- 2
Willmar (4-10, 8-12).......1 1 2 -- 4
FIRST PERIOD - Wil: Liam Johnston (Jake Tone, Grant Schow) 6:59
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SECOND PERIOD - Wil: Trent Fader (Landon Peterson, Jay Bredberg), pp, 11:31
THIRD PERIOD - Wil: Schow (Gabe Amon, Peterson) 2:32 ... Wil: Peterson (unassisted) 7:55 ... SCA: John Feichtinger (Dylan Babiracki, Steve Theis) 9:02 ... Dustin Christen (Theis, Feichtinger) 10:29
GOALIE SAVES - St. Cloud Apollo: Kevin McGuire 14-*-*-14, Andrew Benson *-19-12 ... Willmar: Ben Leitch 7-5-12-24
Sartell 5, River Lakes 1
Sartell applied heavy pressure in the Stars zone to get to a 4-0 lead before Adam Porwoll of River Lakes scored on a power play at 10:59 of the second period.
Stars goalie Matt Kinzer faced 52 shots.
Five different players scored for the Sabres, who improved to 14-7-1 overall.
R.Lakes (4-9-1, 9-13-1). 0 1 0 -- 1
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Sartell (10-5-1, 14-7-1)...2 3 0 -- 5
FIRST PERIOD - Sar: Dustyn Rasmussen (Andrew Deters, Austin Guggenberger), pp, 10:23 ... Sar: Matt Nahan (Andy Worzal, Matt Husmann) 12:06
SECOND PERIOD - Sar: Husmann (Guggenberger) 1:46 ... Sar: Worzala (Nahan, Will Jensen), pp, 5:58 ... RL: Adam Porwoll (Reggie Fraley, Steven Terry), pp, 10:59 ... Sar: Will Jensen (Worzala, Rasmussen) 16:31.
THIRD PERIOD - No scoring
GOALIE SAVES - River Lakes: Matt Kinzer 21-13-13-47 ... Sartell: Brent Orndorff 5-10-8-23
Non-Conference
Luverne 5, MBA 4
(Overtime) -- Luv-erne's Tim Connell scored 4:25 into overtime to hand Morris/Benson Area (10-8-1) the loss.
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Peter Lindblad scored three of the Storm's four goals, including two in the second period. Tyler Hansen had the other goal.
Will Johnson stopped 36 saves in the Morris/Benson net.
Luverne (11-7-1)........1 2 1 1 -- 5
MBA (10-8-1)..............2 2 0 0 -- 4
FIRST PERIOD - Luv: Brent Dinger (Derek Van Santen), 4:31 ... MBA: Peter Lindblad (unassisted), 10:48 ... MBA: Tyler Hansen (Lindblad, Dustin Sauter,) pp, 12:59
SECOND PERIOD - Luv: Dinger (Tim Connell), :35 ... Luv: Van Santen (Josh Connell), pp, 3:32 ... MBA: Lindblad (unassisted), 6:30 ... MBA: Lindblad (Josh Taylor, Sauter), 12:35
THIRD PERIOD - Luv: Phil Paquette (Zach Olson), 5:16
OVERTIME - Luv: T.Connell (Paquette), 4:25
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GOALIE SAVES - Luverne: Tanner Skattum 2-3-4-2-11 ... Morris/Benson Area: Will Johnson 7-14-13-2-36
