Last Spring, Bloomington Jefferson was moved from Section 2AA in the Southwest metro to 3AA in the Southeast. Instead of facing juggernauts like Edina (old 2AA) or Eden Prairie (new 2AA), the Jags will face a more balanced, but winnable section en route to the state tournament in March. Defending champion St. Thomas Academy headlines the list of 3AA teams the new kid on the block will have to beat to skate at the X. Jefferson Head Coach Jeff Lindquist said of the move, "the new section is deeper, we will have three tough games..but we will have a chance to make some hay."

On Saturday they faced the first of three non-conference games versus Section 3 foes, the East Ridge Raptors at home at Bloomington Ice Garden. The Raptors came in with 10 Seniors, including new goalie Josh Grune a move in from Raleigh, North Carolina. 

The game got off to a sloppy start for both teams. With only a handful of practices, the rust was still apparent for the defensemen on both teams. Each of the first four goals in the game were on unforced turnovers. The first was by Raptor winger Jarrod Ronquillo who beat Jaguar goalie Michael Vande Waa early in the first. In what was a near carbon copy of the Ronquillo goal, Jay Johnson got a puck gift wrapped on his stick to tie the score at 1, early in the second period. Forty-two seconds later, East Ridge Freshman Nick Basten collected a loose puck and beat Vande Waa to give the Raptors a 2-1 lead. Jefferson's Ryan Graff capped the second period scoring when he stole a puck behind the net and found a hole between Grune's legs and tied it at 2-2 heading into the third period.

The third period was all Jefferson, they began to take control of the game - winnng puck races and controlling the zone. Halfway through the period, Noah Ganske scored on a Ryan Graff pass after a pretty tic-tac-toe set of passes to give the Jaguars their first lead. "I dropped the puck to Bob (Lescarbeau) and he found Graff down low and he slid it to me backdoor, all I did was tap it in," said Ganske after the game. It took Jefferson only 14 seconds to increase their lead to 4-2, when sophomore winger Hunter Jacobs caught a stretch pass from AJ Robbel behind the Raptor defense and Jacobs flushed it top shelf. The two goals gave the Jaguar fans a lot to cheer about and momentum. After taking a 5-2 lead on a Robbel goal, the game seemed over at 5-2 with 1:48 to go.

But the Raptors never gave up, Ronquillo got his second goal of the game to make things interesting with 1:27 left to make it 5-3. Twenty-nine seconds later senior forward Derek Hammer popped in a loose puck to get the attention of Jefferson. The Jags would hold on and win, 5-4, but East Ridge sent a message to the west siders that if they want to go state, they will have to play a full 51 minutes to win.