The wins keep coming for the Park boys hockey team this early season.

Farmington was the latest victim to fall to the undefeated Wolfpack, falling 3-1 at Cottage Grove Ice Arena Saturday afternoon.

Park sophomore forward Owen Corkish continued his hot shooting, getting Park going with a at the 10:59 mark in the opening period. He then added insult to injury with an empty net score with 19 seconds to play for the final 3-1 margin. Corkish now has six goals and three assist in four games.

“Any win’s a good win,” said Park head coach Jay Moser. “It wasn’t the prettiest of wins but at the end of the day we finished the game hard and won it.

Park got off to a relatively slow start against Farmington, then played sharper in the second and third periods.

“Slow start but we really kicked it into gear end of the second and third,” said Park sophomore forward Gavin Moss. “Just won battles, hard work, on pucks. Just worked together as a team and fought well.”

The slow starts have dogged Park a bit so far this season, but so far it hasn’t cost them.

‘That’s one thing we need to work on, our starts in the beginning,” said Moss. “But our finishes are always getting there.”

“Unfortunately, that’s two games in a row where we have not started well and this was by far our worst,” agreed Moser. “That first period – the second was a little bit better and the third was much better. We have to learn to be consistent and it’s a long season and hopefully they’ll figure it out sooner rather than later.”

Park’s Jackson Rudl broke a 1-1 tie in the second period on an even strength goal at 11:33 in the period. Brendan Bloedel and Corkish had assists on the score.

“We didn’t have a lot of guys who stood out offensively in terms of making great plays,” said Moser. But we had a couple guys that I think really did some of the little things and our defensive corps was not playing well but Adam Friemann, he was one of the guys we could rely on. He played three periods and played steady, didn’t make mistakes and blocked a shot really late in the game there and it was good to see him kind of step up his game.

“We have a few grinders that work really hard,’ Moser continued. “They did the little things as well. Our green line we call them. Adam King, he shows up every day and has the same effort and he did a lot of little things tonight.”

Senior goalie Alex Harden stopped 22 of 23 shots for the Wolfpack, a .957 success rate.

Asked what the Wolfpack did well Saturday, Park senior defender Michael De-Stasio said: “I think we used our speed very well, second and third period getting shots, driving the net hard, getting rebounds, getting those dirty goals.”

Park (4-0) hosts Suburban East Conference rival Stillwater (2-1) Thursday, then takes on Woodbury on Saturday afternoon, both games on the home ice.

Park 4, Tartan 3

Park led from start to finish, but it was a close-run thing as the Wolfpack edged visiting Tartan 4-3 at Cottage Grove Ice Arena Thursday.

The Wolfpack survived a wild final minute in the third period as they were down two players dure to penalties. But the Park defense and goalie Alex Harden kept Tartan at bay.

Sophomore forward Owen Corkish got the Wolfpack started with a goal at the 10:32 mark of the first period and Colton Porter added a short-handed goal to make it a 2-0 game at the 1:14 mark.

Tartan closed to 2-1 and then 3-2 in the second period, but each time Tartan scored Park had an offensive answer. Brendan Bloedel and Gavin Moss put in even strength goals to keep Park out in front of the visitors.

Jackson Rudh, Moss, Adam Friemann and Brayden Leazott had assists for Park.

Tartan outshot the Wolfpack 33-17, but the Wolfpack made their shots count more.

Alex Harden went the distance in goal for the Wolfpack, stopping 14 of 17 shots for an .824 save percentage.

Park players celebrate a game-clinching open-net goal in the final minute in a 3-1 win over Farmington. Photo by John Molene

Park forwards put in-the-net pressure against the Farmington goalie in the third period Saturday.Photo by John Molene