Trailing 3-1 early in the second period, Park’s chances of sweeping East Ridge this boys hockey season looked unlikely at best.

Instead, the Wolfpack blew past the Raptors with a riveting second-period surge that carried them to a rousing 6-3 triumph over the Raptors Thursday at Cottage Grove Ice Arena.

It was Park’s best win of the season, at least so far.

Senior forward Nathan Donlon had a hat trick and classmate Brady Strand slammed in a pair of goals to power the Wolfpack to the victory. Park’s defense, meanwhile, survived a shaky start to shut out the Raptors for the final 25 minutes of the game.

“Second period, going down 3-1 certainly not ideal no one wants to do that, but I was really proud of our team the way we battled back and scored a couple goals on the power play and we had it in us and we’ve got to do that all year,” said Donlon. “I’m just really proud of our guys.”

The win completed a season sweep of the Raptor. Park won the first meeting 3-1 back on Jan. 26.

“We worked hard all night long,” said Park assistant coach Wayne Kemper. “We gave three periods of effort which is a bid deal in this game, especially with the emotions that come along with playing East Ridge. One of the things that we wanted to do was make sure we played a full game and I believe we did that.

With the win, Park moved into a solid fourth place in the Suburban East Conference with a 5-5-1 record.

East Ridge slipped to 2-10 in the conference and 6-15-1 on the season.

The game was light years removed from Park’s previous outing, a dispiriting 5-0 loss to Woodbury on Saturday.

The Raptors stunned the Wolfpack with a goal just 46 seconds into the contest, then went up 2-0 and 3-1 with another two scores. But that was it for East Ridge. Park scored the last five goals of the game and looked sharper and stronger as the game went on. Donlon scored backto- back goals early to keep Park in it.

Then Strand took over, scoring twice in 18 seconds to lift Park from a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 lead at the 13-minute mark of the second period.

“We kept things simple. We got pucks in deep, played the body, didn’t let them get their head and just possessed the puck in the offensive zone, got them standing still and got the pucks on net,” said Strand.

“That was a great period for us. We took advantage of some of the opportunities that we had and actually came back from a deficit there which was a big deal,” said Kemper. “Going into the locker room with a little bit of momentum was a big deal coming out for the third period.

Donlon scored on an even-strength goal to make it a 5-3 Park advantage at 8:27 in the third period. Charles Gutzman finished off the scoring for the Wolfpack with a tally at the 12:55 mark.

All that was left was for the pro-Park folks to whoop it up the rest of the way.

“We did a lot of things well,” said Donlon. “I think we certainly brought the energy and that’s one of the things we’ve been harping on all year. Just being good with communication and working hard. There’s some teams that have a lot of talent and we’re one of those teams that needs to work hard, play fast and play our game and that’s what we did tonight.”

Donlon added an assist to finish with four points on the night. Jackson Rudh had two assists for the Wolfpack. Samuel Janski, Gutzman, Strand, Tyler Schwartz and Wyatt Beaurline also had assists.

Jonah Frost got the win in the net, stopping 23 of 26 shots.

“I think it was a really good team effort. It was nice to see Frosty in net and doing a great job there,” added Kemper. “But I think as far as far as we were taking about trying to figure out who our players of the game but there are so many guys who pitched in tonight. It was really an everybody effort.”

Park skated to a 4-0 win at Burnsville Saturday, improving to 12-7-1 on the season with four games left in the regular season.

The Wolfpack host Apple Valley (6-12-2) Thursday in another non-conference contest, starting at 7:30 p.m.

Park fans greet their heroes as the Wolfpack comes off the ice after rallying for a 6-3 win over East Ridge Thursday. Photo by John Molene