Both the #14 ranked Blaine Bengals and #8 ranked. Benilde-St. Margaret Knights were on a Hot 4 game win streak before Tuesday’s game. The game was chance for both teams to prove themselves after Red hot Blaine beat #3 ranked Elk River, and the Knights put up decisive wins against Teams like Maple Grove and St. Thomas Academy.

Senior Forward Mark Kaske scored early off a pass from Chase Jungels to put BSM ahead 1-1, but the Bengal’s high power offensive could not be tamed. A short time later at 5:10 junior Forward Luke Notermann tied it up on a very pretty goal. From there things went the Bengals way. Just a short 3 minutes later Jesse Slawson banged a shot in to put Blaine ahead by 1.

The Bengals and the Knights made some sloppy mistakes in the first, both teams had very good scoring chances off lazy giveaways.

Senior BSM Forward Chase Jungels looked very impressive, using his speed to quickly get around the ice, he had a chance at a goal but did not put it away. Junior UMD bound Forward Riley Tufte looked very good like usual making his presence felt at all ends of the ice.

 Shots were 9-4 favoring Blaine in the first period.

The real MVP of the second period was definitely the goaltenders. BSM started the period very offensively taking lots of shots. Luckily Blaine Senior Goalie Jon Kallestad played exceptional, he made great saves all period and kept the BSM offensive at bay. He definitely made a case for the first star of the game. During one of many BSM’s offensive attacks he made a clutch glove which threw the momentum in Blaine’s favor. Sophomore BSM Goalie Ryan Bischel also made some good saves  but he began to crack after Blaine hit the cross bar at the 5 minute mark. Senior Jordan Turnquist  put the puck in the net with a minute to give Blaine an extra Boost. He was assisted by Jesse Slawson and Easton Brodzinski, both of whom had great games and ended the game with 3 points.

In the third period Blaines Offense really shined. Although Blaine let in a nice backdoor goal from Chase Jungels halfway through the period, and Junior Grant Boege missed an easy shot in front, they came right back after Junior Griffin Fussy made a solid shot from the point and ended BSM’s Momentum. Jon Kallestad really made his case for 1st star again after he made huge saves to let the Knight’s know that a comeback was a no-no. Late in the period BSM junior Auggie Moore got called on a tripping play that sent him to the box. On that powerplay as the Blaine powerplay unit did their magic, BSM let Riley Tufte open on the point.

That was a mistake as Tufte ripped a beautiful slapshot straight into the net. Goalie Ryan Bischel had absolutely no chance after an exhausting 3rd period that seemed to go anything but the Knight’s way.  Tufte really showed why he deserved to be on UMD.

From there on all hopes of a BSM comeback disappeared as things settled down and the Bengals took the 5-2 W.

Jesse Slawson and Easton Brodzinski finished the night with 3 points and +3 +/-. Luke Notermann and Riley Tufte both had 2 points. Goalie Jon Kallestad had 26 saves and a .929 save percentage to cap off his Solid performance.