All eyes were on senior forward Riley Tufte as he led his visiting team to victory over rival Centennial. Coming off a comeback overtime win against Edina, Blaine is on a 4-0 hot start. Centennial also played Edina, but lost 2-1 and has a record of 3-1. The Blaine defense continually showed up and then disappeared through the game, giving Centennial many breakaway and 2-1 chances. Senior Ridge Gerads also started in goal for the Bengals, and kept the Cougars from capitalizing on many of their chances.

The game started off with a bang when Riley Tufte scored off a pass from senior Tanner Vescio to put the Bengals on the board just 33 seconds into the game. About six minutes later, Tufte seemed to have scored again, but the goal was waved off because the whistle had already been blown.

The Bengals offense had trouble connecting on passes, and gave the puck away too many times.

Momentum started swinging towards the away side, and the Bengals began an end of period offensive that got a boost when Centennial junior Matt Jennrich went to the box for tripping. On the powerplay, junior Lincoln Erne hit the pipe and then about 20 seconds later, shot a wrister that hit the pipe again but went in. The Centennial Cougars then went on to have a powerplay of their own at the end of the period, but were rejected by solid saves from goalie Ridge Gerads.

The two teams being rivals, the whole game was filled with a lot of heavy hits. Senior Austin Johnson was not afraid to use his body against Centennial players and went the box a couple times. Both teams played a little dirty, but the majority of hits were definitely given by Blaine.

The second period was a period of many powerplays. Both teams had numerous powerplays but couldn’t capitalize on them. Around 5 minutes into the period, the Cougars defense managed to kill off a Bengal powerplay, and then threaded a long pass to senior Cody Mclean just as he left the penalty box, who in return then layed the puck out in front to Dylan Klehr.

The Cougars really made a dent in what ever was left of the Bengal momentum. Blaine just could not break out in the second period, and the game looked to be heading Centennials way.

The third period began with two Bengal players going to the box within the first couple minutes, giving Centennial a 5v3. Goalie Ridge Gerads really kept his team going and denied the Cougars several scoring chances. At one point on the powerplay, the Cougars looked to have tied the game up with even the refs signaling a goal, but Gerads made an amazing glove save on a wrap around that convinced the refs to wave the goal off.

Momentum began to swing the Bengal’s way, and sophomore Brian Broos scored his second goal of the season, off a shot that hit the Centennial goalie’s glove and went in. Many thought the game was over, but Centennial responded with a goal a minute later. Cody Mclean netted his second goal of the game, after batting the puck out of the air and into the Blaine net.

With only a couple minutes to play, the Cougars got another powerplay and things really looked like Centennial would tie it up. The Cougars pulled their goalie and were putting up a fight, but Tufte finally ended the game when he scored a long distance open net goal. The rival Cougars were finally finished after a long fight.

Gerads really shined in this game and made 20 saves on 22 shots. Gerads saved the Bengals on alot of their giveaways. He managed to stop a few breakaways and 2v1s.

Tufte disappeared on the ice a couple times during the game, and he even had a giveaway that led to a Cougar breakway, but he proved that he can score goals and play defense.

The Bengals play Elk River 7:30 Saturday night at Fogerty Arena.