Congratulations to three-year players Kobi Lees and Isaac Bliss – as sophomores they were on a Lakes Region Tournament winning team and have been leaders in each of the past two seasons. Evan Oberton was injured and unable to play during his sophomore year, but he and Tristan Black, who joined the team as a junior, have been big contributors for the past two years and set good examples for their teammates as they navigated the changes associated with all of the COVID protocols this season.  Thank you to all four – you will be missed next winter.

KUA’s final game of the season, a fourth outing against New Hampton, saw another hard-fought contest. The Wildcats dominated the first period, throwing shot after shot at the Huskies’ goal, and were ahead 3 – 0 after one period on goals by Ray Thurston, Isaac Bliss, and Cole Gueldenzoph. The Huskies regrouped and started putting pressure on the Wildcats. Trey Masson made several big saves before the Huskies put one by him, but the Wildcats responded with a spectacular goal. Kobi Lees skated the puck through the neutral zone and into the offensive end before sliding it to Isaac Bliss in the high slot. Isaac paused just a moment before sending it to his left to Jon Bruner who calmly put what proved to be the game-winner in the net.  Kobi went on to score himself minutes later after gliding in from the blue line to the high slot and receiving a perfect pass from the corner. New Hampton scored twice more and created some good opportunities in the closing minutes, but the game ended at 5 – 3.

Friday’s game against New Hampton was a fast-paced contest with both teams going hard all afternoon. Cole Gueldenzoph opened the scoring with a blast from the point. Isaac Bliss scored next, but the Huskies scored the next three to go into the third period leading 3-2. The Wildcats evened the score and Ray Thurston scored two minutes later to put KUA back ahead, but New Hampton scored the tying goal to force a potential overtime shoot-out. Dan Guerra wasn’t having that, though, and he scored a beautiful rebound goal with just over three minutes left in the game. Jon Bruner scored 20 seconds later, and Aiden Kelly scored KUA’s final goal with assists from linemates Jacob Rimberg and Ian Marks.