Junior star Jackson Rudh was unstoppable, and Park had its best game of the season in a rousing 4-0 win over a talented White Bear Lake team Saturday afternoon.
Rudh scored all four Park goals as the Wolfpack dominated off the conference-co leaders. Rudh’s goals came at 8:08 and 13:59 of the first period, 16:43 of the second and then an empty net score at the 15:23 mark of the third.
“It was a huge team effort,” said Rudh, who now has 27 goals and 18 assists in 23 games on the season, for a total of 45 points. “It goes from everybody from forwards to D and the goalie, (it was a) great effort. They shut it down.
Asked if this was the best win of the season, Rudl said, “It’s up there for sure but we’re not surprised. This is what we expect now. We believe we can beat anybody.”
Park went to 11-4 in the Suburban East Conference with the win and 14-9 on the season.
White Bear Lake, which came into the contest tied for the conference lead with Stillwater, suffered a major blow to its title hopes. The Bears fell to 11-2 in the SEC and 14-7-1 overall. Stillwater now leads the conference with a 13-1 league record and is 13-8-1 on the season.
The win cemented the prevailing thought that it’s been a wild 2023-24 season for the Park Wolfpack. The same team which lost at home 9-1 to Stillwater and 4-2 to a subpar Apple Valley/Burnsville team (5-18) is the one which won at Cretin-Derham Hall (10-4, 13-8-1) in January and then routed the visiting Bears Saturday.
Asked if this was the best Park win of the season, Park goalie coach Luke Maul said, “For sure. It just feels like everything is coming together at the right time right now. Everyone played their role. They knew their role and everyone just came out and got a W as a team. It was so nice to see and we changed our game throughout the course of the game and we just had to play like hell and we had to go on the defensive side and get pucks deep and just go to work. It was awesome. We shut down their top line, It was a great feeling for everyone.
Wolfpack sophomore goalie Henry Voss stopped all 18 shots he faced.
“Our goalie played amazing,” Maul added. “He made some huge stops for us. SO it was just all around a good team win. And it seems to be at the right time.”
Asked what the Wolfpack did well, Voss said, “Everything. Just about everything. Our defense made it easy on me. Forwards scored, everyone did their job, forechecked hard, got pucks in deep/ We did our job. It was a good win and I think we can beat anyone.”
Park forward Owen Corkish led Park with four assists, giving him a team high 26 on the season. Caden Schwartz had two, while Malachi McMorrow and Brady Nadler had one each.
“I was four-nothing, unbelievable,” said Owen Corkish. “We just pounded them and it showed. It was awesome, really. “I think our forecheck, all five guys on the ice were working together, we understand each other and it works. We just press them all over and didn’t give them any time to space. It was good.”
Park (11-4, 14-9) hosts Cretin-Derham Hall (10-4, 13-8-1) Thursday at Cottage Grove Ice Arena in the final regular season game, starting at 7:30 p.m. The Wolfpack had a rare win at Cretin earlier in the season, edging the Raiders 3-2. A win by the Wolfpack would be a third-place finish in the conference over the Raiders.
Park 4, Woodbury 1
Corkish scored two goals and Park got a nice bounce back win over host Woodbury Thursday, topping the Royals 4-1 after a tough loss at home Tuesday against Holy Family.
Corkish powered in the first and the last goals of the game to help the Wolfpack to the win at M Health Fairview Sports Center. His first goal came at 3:43 of the first period. His second came at 16:20 of the second period. Neither team scored in the third.
Max Kaplan and Rudh also scored for Park in the second period, both on even strength goals as the Wolfpack built a 3-0 lead.
Rudh added two assists on the night. Michael Destasio, Corkish and Brady Nadler had one assists each.
Henry Voss earned the start in the net and stopped 22 of 23 Woodbury shots.
Holy Family 5, Park 3
Park’s late season battles with inconsistency reared its head again Tuesday as the Wolfpack dropped a 5-3 non-conference decision to a good Holy Family team at Cottage Grove Ice Arena.
Park is just 2-3 over the last five games.
Park fell to 129 on the season, while Holy Family improved to 14-5-1.
The Wolfpack again got off to a slow start and trailed 2-0 after the first period and 4-1 after two. Park finally got the offense going in the third, scoring two goals, but it was a classic case of too little, too late.
Luke Dahlstrom had Park’s only goal in the first two periods. Front line stars Owen Corkish and Jackson Rudl each scored in the third period within 30 seconds of each other. Corkish and Gavin Moss each had two assists and Rudh had one.
