Host Cretin-Derham Hall brought the Park Wolfpack back down to earth with a 9-5 win Saturday at Charles M, Schulz Highland Arena Saturday.

Park came into the contest fresh off rousing wins over South Washington Country rival Woodbury (53) and East Ridge (5-1) but couldn’t stay with the Raiders Saturday.

The Wolfpack looked sharp out of the gate against Cretin, surging to a 3-1 lead after the first period. But the Raiders outscored the Wolfpack 3-0 to take a 4-3 lead after two periods, then blasted Park 5-2 in the third for the final margin.

Cretin moved to 3-0 and leads the Suburban East Conference – South and 5-2 on the season.

Jackson Rudh, Anthony Zamora and Tyler Schwartz got Park off to a fast start with three goals in the first period. But that was it for the Wolfpack until Rudh scored again at 3:52 of the third period. Own Corkish added Park’s final goal at the 12:35 mark.

Corkish and Schwartz each had a pair of assists for Park.

Cretin outshot the Wolfpack 37-24.

After eight games, Corkish leads Park with eight goals and nine assists. Rudh had seven goals and 12 assists and Gavin Moss has seven goals and seven assists.

Park (6-2) is idle until a game against Owatonna in the Heritage Hockey Classic at the Duluth Heritage Sports Center Tuesday, Dec. 27.

Park 5, East Ridge 1

Park won its third straight match over the past two seasons against South Washington Country rival East Ridge, skating to a convincing 5-1 win at Cottage Grove Ice Arena Thursday.

“It was our first complete game where we didn’t have a significant dropoff in one of the periods,” said Park head coach Jay Moser. “We still made our mistakes and we did a lot of things that we need to get better at. But overall, it – giving up one goal, goaltending was good We got the offense a little later in the game that what I would have liked but every phase was working well.”

Park’s 6-1 start was the best start Moser could remember. “I’ve been here 17 years and I dare to bet it hasn’t happened in 17 years.”

Sophomore forward Jackson Rudh got the scoring started for the Wolfpack with a goal at 16:28 in the first period. East Ridge tied the game at 1-all with a goal in the second, but sophomore forward Gavin Moss put the Wolfpack up for good with a goal at the 6:49 mark of the second period.

“We had a ton of shots on net, like 45 shots,” said Moss. “We battled hard. We put some pucks away and we hyped up as on the bench as a team. A positive attitude. Everybody is vibing in the locker room, good team effort and the chemistry is there. We’re battling hard. We’ve got a good team this year.”

Park led 2-1 after two and then romped to a 3-0 third period, getting back-to-back goals from senior forward Colton Porter and a final score from Owen Corkish.

“We were moving the puck well, getting shots on net, really playing physical,” said sophomore forward Caden Munger. “It was an allaround good game. I think we could have gotten the puck out of the zone more.”

Alex Harden got the win in goal, stopped 22 of 23 shots for a .957 success rate.

“Obviously Alex Hardin did very well, only giving up one goal and he made some big saves when we needed him to,” said Moser. “I thought Colton Porter played a complete game as well, both defensively and offensively. We had some guys blocking shots and our normal red line they got a few goals which they needed to do. That’s their role. I thought everyone played pretty well.”

Park improved to 1-1 in the SEC and 6-1 overall. East Ridge fell to 0-2 and 1-3.

Park junior defender Tommy Lucas (24) moves the puck down the ice against the Raptors. Photo by John Molene