The River Falls Wildcats defeated the Baldwin-Woodville Blackhawks by a score of 3-0 in Baldwin on Tuesday night, Dec. 19.

It was a game where the Wildcats outpaced the Blackhawks in every facet of the game throughout the night.

River Falls won the opening faceoff and put a shot on goal right away.

The game started out a little slower, but at no point did it feel like the momentum was anything but in the Wildcats’ favor. They still got on the board relatively early with an unassisted goal by Mason Rappel 6:42 into the game, and they outshot the Blackhawks nearly 2-1 in the first frame.

Overall, the first period played cleanly, with the only penalty minutes incurred coming at the very end, and they were from a head contact infraction by Baldwin. This gave the Wildcats a power play to start the second, but unfortunately, they were unable to convert this time out and the score remained 1-0.

The game started to gather intensity in the second period. A two-team infraction for roughing and slashing had both teams playing shorthand at the 5:48 mark. Baldwin would get penalized twice more for roughing before the end of the period, but the Wildcats would come up empty on the power plays once again.

With 6:10 left, River Falls got a score anyway, increasing their score on a goal by Hunter Rappel assisted by his brother Mason Rappel and Charlie Friemann.

After this, the frustration became palpable from Baldwin. They were losing, being outshot and generally outplayed, and things started to get pretty chippy on the ice because of it. They incurred the last of the second period’s roughing penalties shortly thereafter.

Things didn’t get much better either. The Blackhawks started the final period by getting yet another roughing penalty. River Falls fell short of scoring on their fourth power play of the night, but they maintained their lead, nonetheless.

With under 7:00 yet to play, Baldwin pulled their goalie and tried to force the puck into the net. The tempo increased as they put pressure on the Wildcats, but their defense and goal tender Luke Linehan held them off.

With 6:28 yet to play, the puck left River Falls’ d-zone and two skaters from each team raced down the ice. What followed was a truly chaotic empty net goal, but it was a goal for Wyatt Hoepfl nonetheless, completed with the assistance of Jack Rock.

The game ended soon thereafter with a 3-0 shutout victory for the Wildcats.

On the night, River Falls outshot Baldwin 31-21. The penalty minutes were almost even at the end as well, with the Wildcats incurring 8:00 in the box to the Blackhawks’ 10:00.

Mason Rappel was the only player with multiple points, and he now has 10 on the year. Hunter Rappel currently leads the team with 11.

Junior Linehan is one of the two main goalies the Wildcats use. Apparently, the team and he wanted to get a little more out of the goalie position than just playing immaculate defense on Tuesday night.

“I’ve only ever scored a goal in practice. I was looking up at the clock and it was three to nothing, and I was like, ‘well, I think we’ve got an opportunity.’ I started talking to my centers, and they said they were going to try and get it back to me,” Linehan said. “There wasn’t really any chance, but if there was, I would’ve taken the shot.”

Head Coach Cameron Wilken says he’s happy with how they played, but they’re still trying to put everything together more consistently.

“I thought the game wasn’t as close as the score said. Our first period wasn’t really what we were looking for, but we still got one on the board. We tried to fiddle with it too much instead of shooting the puck, but we corrected that as the night went on,” Wilken said. “We’re still just trying to put a complete game together. Right now, there’s games where everything’s perfect, and there’s games where nothing is perfect. Hopefully we can put everything together and be a more consistent hockey team.”

With this, River Falls advances to 6-5 on the season. After starting out 4-1, the Wildcats hit a bit of a rough patch, going 1-4 to even their record up at 5-5. This win, against a tough, physical team like Baldwin, although a non-conference matchup, was still a nice way to get back on track.

Next up for the Wildcats is a tournament in Fargo on Dec. 27 and 28. It’s something they’ve been doing every year, and the team looks forward to the trip over the holidays to play some very good squads that they otherwise would not normally see.

Big Rivers Conference play will resume after the new year when the Wildcats get two conference games in a row. First up is an away game against the Rice Lake Warriors on Tuesday, Jan. 2, and the second is a home game against the Eau Claire North Huskies on Thursday, Jan. 4. The puck drops for both of those games at 7 p.m.