Woodbury boys hockey: Royals tie Roseville, fall to Ponies

Suburban East Conference competition left Woodbury with a tie and loss on the ice last week.

After playing to a tie at home against Roseville, the Royals fell 4-1 Saturday, Dec. 8, on the road against Stillwater.

Woodbury’s record now stands at 0-1-2 with another SEC foe – Cretin-Derham Hall – ahead this week.

In the Stillwater game, Woodbury fell behind 2-0, but narrowed the gap to one after a Jack Glaeser power-play goal. The junior forward was assisted on the play by seniors Geno DeMike and Ford Pendleton.

Despite a hard-fought second period where Woodbury outshot the Ponies 13-9, the Royals couldn’t convert scoring opportunities and succumbed to turnovers.

Head coach Wes Bolin said three of Stillwater’s four goals came on turnovers in the defensive zone.

“Obviously that hurt us,” he said.

Bolin said a shining element from the Stillwater was that the Royals didn’t commit penalty in the game.

“We really did battle hard,” he said. “There’s no quit in these kids.”

Against Roseville, the Royals started off down 1-0 in the first period before senior forward Ryan Winter got what Bolin called “a beautiful goal,” and his first of the season. Alec Albright and Jordan Graham assisted on the play.

Roseville scored again in the second, taking a 2-1 lead, but Woodbury answered later that period on a Sasha Choporov goal. Albright and Winter assisted on the game-tying goal.

Senior goaltender Connor Kwiatkowski fended off 49 of 51 shots he faced.

“He was real solid in the nets for us,” Bolin said.

The Royals recorded 32 shots on goal against the Raiders.

Up next for Woodbury are the 2-1 Cretin-Derham Hall Raiders, who are coming off a 5-2 win over East Ridge.

“As usual, they’ll be a pretty tough opponent,” Bolin said.

The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. at Highland Arena in St. Paul.

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