The Becker Big Lake varsity hockey Eagles lost to Pine City-Rush City Thursday, 5-4, beat Moose Lake Tuesday, 5-2 in an away game after losing to the Northern Lakes Lightning 2-1 at home Saturday.
Pine City scored first in the first period but the Eagles came back to score three times in the second before Pine City scored again, ending the period with a score of 3-2 in the Eagles failure.
Zach Vieau scored on a power play at 8:24 with an assist from Adam Schug. Nick Stalpes scored at 9:55 with an assist from Vieau and again at 14:27 with an assist from Ethan Boutin.
In the third period, Tristan Gust scored 2:46 minutes into the period with an assist from Jason Tonneslan but Pine City came back and scored three times to take the game. Ethan Huber stopped 16 shots on goal.
In the win against Moose Lake, John Messman scored first for the Eagles with assists from Elliot Darsow and Nick Stalpes at 6:49 in the first period. Darsow then scored at 8:59 with assists from Alex Green and Taylor Giving.
Moose Lake scored twice in the second period to tie the score, but the Eagles’ Ben Gilchrist scored at 10:31 with assists from Stalpes and Darsow to put the Eagles ahead.
In the third period Darsow scored unassisted at 4:06 and Stalpes sealed the win with an assist from Jason Tonneslan at 13:52.
Darsow was named player of the game with four points. Winning goalie was Ben Manzke with a .902 percentage of shots saved.
In Saturday’s game versus the Northern Lakes, Zach Vieau got the Eagles’ only goal three minutes into the first period. The Lightning scored once in the second period and once in the third to take the game.
The Eagles’ top seven scorers from last year are back, among them Jason Tonneslan, Zach Vieau, Nick Stalpes, Tristan Gust, Ethan Boutin, and Elliot Darsow.
Their top four defensemen are seniors Zach Muller, Ben Gilchrist, Alec Green and Tucker Wilkendorf.
Returning goaltenders Ethan Huber and Ben Manzke will share duties.
Other players on the varsity include Brandon Christianson, freshman forward; Milan Kent, sophomore defense; Taylor Giving, junior forward; Dana Slominski, senior forward; Grant Vickerman, junior forward; Ryan Murnane, freshman forward, Weston Schug, center, Lyndon Carlson, defense, Owen Houghton, wing, Colin Downs, wing, Alec Green, defense, Nick Cencer, center, Fedor Guchikov and Adam Schug, junior defense.
Coach Doug Friedrichs is excited about the lineup his team will offer.
“We have good forwards. We have two quick lines and our third line will be a checking line,” he said. “The defense will be mobile. They will be able to protect our goalies.”
Other teams in their Two Rivers Conference include Mora, Legacy Christian, River Lakes, Princeton and North Branch.
Friedrichs has spent 20 years coaching hockey, a goodly share in Sauk Rapids, where he coached Mites to Bantam A level.
He is assisted by Kevin Jeffers, Scott Barta and Tim Houghton, the last two new to the squad.
The program has 32 players this year, of which 17 are from Big Lake and 15 are from Becker.
The Eagles take on Prairie Centre Saturday at 3 p.m. and Siren-Webster Tuesday at home at 7:15 p.m.
