OK, that’s not news. What is news is that this may be the first winter in the history of the world where it snows every day!

But the holidays are over. Last night was a triple-header for Cardinal sports teams. And it was the best of times; it was the worst of times (NOT from War and Peace). The Super Fans had a date at the RCC for a girl/boy hockey double header against Brainerd. Well, the boys played Brainerd – the girls played a consortium (getting to be a favorite word) of Brainerd-Little Falls-Pillager (I believe)-and 27 Canadian provinces.

It seemed like it had been month since the girls last played. Not wanting to miss any of the action, the supervisor and I arrived before the ticket takers. We sat by ourselves in an empty arena for about a half hour. Eventually, the remaining Super Fans began to arrive – Dusty, Roger, and the Meuwissens with the eating machines. We lost some during the holidays – the Shaughnessys, as previously reported here, have arrived safely in Arizona; the Annens successfully survived a four-day drive to Sarasota, their first attempt at snowbirding. Bob has already sent a photo taken from their lanai [attached], which we call a porch in Minnesota.  [OMG!  Apologies!  I forgot Teddy and Jerry Hockey, who by virtue of their status as the world’s greatest hockey fans, were sitting on the concourse sofa on the red line!]

Anyway, the game. The video is of the first 7 ½ minutes of the game. The teams appeared evenly matched – good scoring chances by both teams. The Cards scored off a scrum in front of the net – Kalley Kragenbring from Shelby Iverson – and led 1 – 0 after the 1st period. The Cards had a power play in the 2nd period, and in a real defensive lapse, allowed the Flying Warriors to score a short-handed goal. The Flying Warriors scored two more goals in the 2nd period, both, again, on defensive lapses by the Cards, and led 3 – 1. Quinn Kragenbring scored on a beautiful set up by Shelby to close the gap to one at the end of the 2nd period. Brainerd-Little Falls scored in the 3rd – a good play by the Flying Warriors. Then, for the first time this season, the Cards seemed to be resigned they were going to lose again. 4 – 2 was the final, though we thought the Cards skated well and had the better of the play most of the game. Their problem, in this game and during the season, is they have to grind for every goal while the opponents seem to be able to get the easy score when available.

And I think the team is getting tired of the consortiums! They are playing all these class AA teams – and Thursday they play another when Sartell-St. Stephen-Sauk Rapids-Rice comes to town. After that game they play 8 of their last 10 games on the road – including at places like Hopkins and Moorhead. This is going to be a very tough go, but they should be well prepared when the class A sections begin.

The video:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ruthobert#p/a/u/0/a_1okF3h1bg

The boys played immediately afterwards (though we went home to recover). They were coming off a successful holiday tournament trip to Roseau where they won two games before losing the championship by only one goal to the host team. While home listening the girls basketball game [following] the announcers were giving updates on the hockey game. It was 2 – 2 after the 1st, the Cards led 3 – 2 after the 2nd, but then lost 5 – 3.

Dave Harris was back at KXRA after his usual December golfing adventure someplace South and was covering the girls basketball game at Willmar. The first half sounded incredibly sloppy – lots of turnovers by both teams. The Cards (ours, not theirs) athleticism took over in the 2nd half. While both teams were still committing several turnovers, our Cards began to pull away and came away with a 57 – 42 win improving their record to 7 – 0. Lauren Trumm had an incredible game with 32 points, and she always scores off the flow of the game – turnovers, fast breaks, offensive rebounds, and she was very good at the free throw last night. She was the only player in double figures, a rare occurrence for the Cards. Whitney Gesell was player of the game with 8 points off the bench, Alli had 8, Cara had 4, and Sam had 5 (foul troubles limited her playing time). The team was 19 – 24 from the free throw line – that will be key as the season progresses.
[Photos will be available as soon as the staff photographer gets his film developed.]