Feature Story

Northern Lights climb into second place

 

By Nick Clark

 

After back-to-back victories vaulted his team into sole position of second place in the Minnesota Junior Hockey League, Twin Cities Northern Lights head man A.J. Degenhardt had plenty of reasons to crack a grin.

Truthfully though, that smile’s been there for awhile.

Heading into last weekend, the Lights had won five straight. Then, after winning a pair of one-goal games over both the Minnesota Owls (4-3) and Granite City Lumberjacks (3-2), they pushed that win-streak to seven, and in the process, grabbed second place in the MnJHL league standings.

“We’ve been playing well,” Degenhardt said. “We have some momentum going, we are doing some good things and it is carrying over night after night. Consistency is a good thing.”

Now the objective is to roll with it. Before he was even through enjoying the latest victory, Degenhardt noted that while getting to this point was an accomplishment, staying here will be an entirely different challenge.

Nine of Twin Cities’ next 12 games come against teams currently situated in the top-five of the league, including two of three this coming week, when the Lights host fifth-place Wisconsin on Wednesday, before heading north for visits with the Minnesota Flying Aces Saturday and the league leading Lumberjacks Sunday.

Last Sunday’s meeting with Granite City was the first of year, but they’ll meet up again in each of the next two weekends, plus two more times before Christmas.

“Our schedule has been kind of favorable to this point, but this weekend and from here on out, it is a pretty tough schedule,” Degenhardt said. “This was our first game against [Granite City], and we have them the next two weekends as well. It will be a tough series with them. They have a very good team. They have four good lines and guys that aren’t in the lineup that are very good players too.”

Fortunately for the coach, the Northern Lights have been able to roll four solid lines the entire way as well, which has been a large reason why Twin Cities has already won 13 times.

“We have the depth right now with four lines and all are fairly dangerous,” Degenhardt said. “We are a tough team to play for us in that sense, and the big guys have to make plays at the right time, and they’ve been doing that for us over this stretch.”

Sunday’s win over Granite City served as an example.

Tied 2-2 midway through the third period, Garrett Windle (Downington, Pa.) netted his league-leading 18th goal of the year, twisting around the offensive zone before zipping a shot up and over Granite City goaltender Henrik Wood (Jar, Norway) for what turned out to be the game-winning goal.

But Windle hasn’t been alone. Josh Shingler (Shawano, Wis.), Jonathan Barrick (Litchfield, Minn.) and Chris Weber (Burnsville, Minn.) have all reached double-digits in points, and after earning the win in both victories over the weekend, Josh Lehr (Appleton, Wis.) has won nine times in goal, which is tied for tops in the MnJHL.

“It’s been a collective effort,” Degenhardt said. “All sorts of guys have stepped up, hopefully it continues.”

 

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