Both SPA and East Grand Forks were coming off their first losses of the year, when they met Saturday afternoon at Drake Arena.  The Green Wave had just lost to Breck the night before 9-1, and the Spartans lost to Mahtomedi on Tuesday, 3-2.  

The Green Wave had some heavy legs to start the game, giving up three first period goals and two in the first six minutes.  When asked about his game plan for playing a team that had just played less than 24 hours ago, SPA head coach Matt Funk said, "We knew they played last night and they would have tight legs, but they are also a proud and skilled club that wasn't happy with the result last night against Breck so we knew we would get their best shot. We had to match their intensity and play our game."

Jack Johnston was the definition of intensity today, as he was flying all over the ice, on both sides of the red line.  When Coach Funk was asked about Johnston, he had this to say,  "Jack is a coach's dream. He is a skilled player that is a sponge on the rink. He comes to the rink everyday wanting to learn and get better. We talked a lot this week about shoring up his defensive game and while I love his 3 goals today, the biggest impact he had today was playing a complete game and shoring up the defensive zone. He is just now scratching the surface of what I believe his potential could be."

Up next: SPA will take on Simley Tuesday night at 7:30 and East Grand will hit the road, but much closer this time, and take on Crookston on Tuesday.