The Bears had already beaten a familiar foe, Stillwater, twice in league play this season.  Wednesday night, White Bear Lake found Eagan’s arena unforgiving, Eagan’s plucky defense unrelenting, and the Wildcat’s goalie Evan Melville almost unbeatable.  They still managed a 3-0 win.  After clanking four pucks off the pipes and completely missing the net on at least a dozen more open shots, the snakebitten Bears managed to stuff two pucks in the net and score a late third period goal to win 3-0.  Despite Melville stopping 41 shots, the Bears managed to muscle one puck past Melville and eke one puck through his 5-hole to take a 2-0 lead into the third period.

Period 1: Bears’ offense dominates

Eagan got pinned in the Wildcats’ zone in the first minute of play in the opening period.  After defending their zone in the first minute, Eagan got a faceoff.  They changed lines and Eagan was pinned again in their zone.  White Bear Lake used their size, spread their offense, and used puck movement around the perimeter to maintain control.  Eagan did force the Bear’s to stretch their offensive perimeter and move the puck quickly.  That kept White Bear Lake along the boards, but the Bears continued to spend most of the opening period in the Eagan zone until the Bears drew a tripping penalty with six minutes left in the period.  That allowed Eagan to relieve the pressure and generate some offense.  The Wildcats set up on the power play in the Bears’ zone and for the first minute of penalty time, had the Bears backed into a box around their net.

The Bears killed the penalty but lost their early dominance.  The game became a wide open affair with both teams moving the puck from their zone to the opponents, firing a shot or losing control, and the other team turning the loose puck into a counter rush.  The Bears rushes were producing shots, Eagan’s rushes were not.  Gradually, the Bears began to assert themselves.  They kept the puck longer and longer in Eagan’s zone and at the end of the first period had the Wildcats defense scrambling again to clear the zone until the Bears drew a checking penalty with 10 seconds left on the clock.  The first period ended in a 0-0 tie.  The Bears outshot the Wildcats 14-2 in the opening period.

Period 2: Starting to feel “snakebitten”

Eagan opened the second period on a 1:50 minute power play.  White Bear Lake got the puck off the opening faceoff deep into the Eagan zone and set up in a four across the Eagan’s blue line and kept them trapped for the first minute.  Then after a stoppage, the Bears switched gears, moved some offensive power to the two forward positions, and attacked the Wildcats in their zone.  They succeeding in controlling the puck in the Eagan corners until the penalty was killed.

After the Eagan power play ended, the play turned ragged with missed passes and missed opportunities as the teams failed to hit open players on the offense.  Both teams struggled until at the 8 minute mark, the Bears got the puck low in the Eagan zone and put a shot on net creating a melee around Eagan’s goalie Melville that eventually resulted in the puck being pushed through the goalie on his knees.  The Bears’ Sam Verkerke got the goal; Brady O'Brien got the assist.  White Bear Lake led 1-0.  It was the winning goal.

Eagan rallied after that goal and brought pressure on the Bears’ net.  Aided by a second Bear’s penalty in the period, the Wildcats kept the puck in the Bears’ zone.  But the Wildcat offense struggled trying to get a clean shot on net.  A Wildcat penalty at the two minute mark ended the Wildcats rally.  The Bears started to press again.  The period ended with White Bear Lake leading 1-0.  White Bear Lake was starting to miss the net on good scoring opportunities and they were starting to feel a little “snakebitten”.  They could not get the puck on the net.  The Bears outshot the Wildcats 12-5 in the second period but had at least another 10 misses. 

Period 3: “Snakebitten”

The Eagan defense slowed at the opening of the third period.  The Bears took advantage and it resulted in a number of rushes on the Eagan goal.  One 2-on-0 rush resulted in the puck hitting the crossbar and bouncing into a corner; a 3-on-0 rush resulted in Evan Melville stepping up and taking the puck into his body from a foot away; a third slashing rush resulted in the shot narrowly missing the net.  If the Bears felt they were snakebitten before the third period started, they knew they were snakebitten with nine minutes left in the period.  It was at that point, with nine minutes left in the game, the Bears got the game breaker.

White Bear Lakes Owen Gallatin beat the Eagan defense to the edge of the left crease.  Gallatin picked up a rebounding puck along the left end boards and went for the net.  As he came into the crease area, he shot with the puck sliding through the goalies 5-hole into the net.  It was a great play and it put the Bears up 2-0.  Triston Johnson got the assist.  And it slowed the Eagan team’s play down.  

The rest of the third period was anticlimactic, but not for Eagan’s goalie Melville.  After coming up with some big stops on rushes after giving up the second goal, Melville’s Wildcats picked up a penalty at the halfway mark.  He had to face down a tough White Bear power play.  After that penalty, the Bears continued to dominate Eagan when the puck was in the Wildcats’ zone.  White Bear Lake the finally beat Melville and the Eagan defense with less than a minute left in the game to win 3-0.  White Bear Lake outshot Eagan 18-3 three in the third period.  Melville played a tough game under physical pressure from Eagan.

What is next?

The Bears play Woodbury and Lakeville South this weekend and play at Rochester the following Sunday.  All three games are M&G games.  The Bears are currently 3-0 in D2/D8 peewee AA league and will not return to play a league game until January 10th.  The Bears will play only 13 league games this season are will have to win all 13 to have a shot at the league title.  Stillwater, Eagan and others play a 16 game league schedule.

Eagan plays three league games in the coming week, Lakeville South, league leading and NOW ranked #3 Rosemount, and Apple Valley.  The Wildcats will head to Bemidji over the Christmas Holidays to play in the Paul Bunyan International Tourney starting January 1st.  The Wildcats have a solid defense, but need to find some offense.  The Wildcats have held their last six opponents to nine goals but have scored only eight goals.  Still Eagan posted a 3-2-1 record in those six games.