The River Falls Wildcats won both games of their home invitational which took place on Friday and Saturday last week, beating the Tartan Titans 5-2 and the North Branch-St. Francis Northern Edge 4-0.

Friday’s game against Tartan heated up quickly. Midway through the first period the Wildcats scored three consecutive goals in 1:02 of playing time. Andrew Amundson got the first two, one of which came on a power play, and Mason Rappel got the third.

With just over a minute remaining in the period, Tartan got one of those points back, and the game went into its first break with the score at 3-1 in favor of the Wildcats.

The rest of the game played a little slower than period one, but 5:36 into the second period, Wyatt Hoepfl scored giving River Falls an insurance goal. The Titans answered back late in the period, but the Wildcats took a 4-2 lead into the final frame.

Overall, it was a good defensive game for River Falls, and that showed when they kept Tartan completely off the board in the third period. With just 0:57 remaining in the game, Amundson completed the hat trick bringing the final score to 5-2 for a Wildcats victory.

Head Coach Cam Wilken said after the game that he really liked how they played against Tartan.

“Our speed and offense was great, we definitely have to clean up our defensive structure in our own end though,” Wilken said. “I thought junior goalie Luke Linehan was great. He bailed us out a number of times. Freshman Daniel Linn will get the net for game two. Senior Andrew Amundson recorded a hat trick. He’s been a great leader and captain thus far.” 

The aforementioned game two came on Saturday night against the Northern Edge, a team that plays a very physical brand of hockey.

The Wildcats came out hot, doing almost exactly what they did the night before, scoring three goals as a team in the first period. Jimmy Rock scored the first one on a power play midway through. In the waning minutes of the period, Hunter Rappel got one at even strength, and Chase Weissinger chipped in another power play goal.

Periods two and three had a lot of uneven play by the Wildcats, and the Northern Edge kept playing excessively physical hockey, something that River Falls isn’t used to. With only 21:00 played in the game, the Edge already had 14:00 penalty minutes thoroughly filling out their penalty bingo card with slashing, cross checking, high sticking, head contact and tripping.

Still, the Wildcats kept them off the board, and Hunter Rappel added on to their total midway through the third period with a goal in which he was assisted by his brother Mason Rappel and Charlie Friemann. That would do it for the scoring, and River Falls moved to 2-0 on the season with the 4-0 victory.

The Rappel/Rappel brotherly combination on the goal is something Wildcat fans will likely see a lot this season from a team that features three sets of brothers. Hunter Rappel says that although the team features a lot of younger players, this is actually a benefit.

“There was a little bit of a learning curve to start, but I think everyone is meshing together really well. We’re faster than everybody, and our positioning in the offensive zone makes it really easy to find the open guy,” Hunter Rappel said. “I think the attitude on the team this year is a lot better too. Everyone's really more excited to play hockey and more motivated to win games.”

Amundson, who is the goal leader for the Wildcats in the early goings, agrees with Rappel on their overall team culture being better this year.

“I think this year though, with the young kids coming in, hockey is their main sport. In past years, a lot of the kids’ main sport wasn't hockey, so these guys care a lot more,” Amundson said.

Wilken likes the win but says their gameplay overall wasn’t as technically sound or tight as he wants to see.

“I wasn’t expecting perfection, especially this early in the year. Would I like to see some things cleaned up? Yeah, it was pretty sloppy. But for the most part, finding a way to win and putting goals in the net is what we struggled with in the past, so I'd rather that we win ugly than lose pretty,” Wilken said.

With a two-step of Big Rivers Conference teams on deck this week, Coach Wilken is focused on what’s ahead for the 2-0 Wildcats.

“The teams we’re playing next week, Chip and Memorial, are both really, really good hockey teams who have a chance to be D1 state champions. So, we’ve got to clean up our play. The turnovers have got to stop,” Wilken said. “I think our speed showed a lot more last night of how we can play when we're really buzzing around. We keep hammering on the positives like that, and the fact that we can put the puck in the net. I thought for the most part, we played pretty decent defense, now we just have to watch the tape a couple of times and clean up the mistakes.”

The opening week of Big Rivers Conference competition kicks off on Tuesday when they travel to Chippewa Falls to play the Cardinals, and it continues on Thursday when they take on the Old Abes at Eau Claire Memorial High School. Play begins at 7 p.m. for both games.