The River Falls Wildcats lost to the New Richmond Tigers by a score of 10-5 on Thursday in River Falls and lost to the Amery Warriors on Saturday 6-1 in Amery.

The game against New Richmond was the Wildcats’ third conference game of the season, and it was a boxing match throughout the first period.

With 12:22 left on the clock in the first, New Richmond got on the board first, but Hunter Rappel answered right back for River Falls just two minutes later to even the score. The tie was short lived as the Wildcats incurred an interference penalty, and the Tigers took advantage, scoring on a power play to take a 2-1 lead.

The second period was the real killer for River Falls as New Richmond scored three in a row, including two back-to-back goals within 0:17 of game time that were both shorthanded. With just over 2:00 left in the second period, Rappel got one back for the Wildcats to shrink the deficit to 5-2. This was followed by another interference penalty on the home team just before the clock expired.

The final period was a shootout. The Tigers started period three on a power play after the penalty, and they made the Wildcats pay for it with another goal to push their lead back to four. This would be the first of eight total goals in the period.

Jack Rock got the scoring going for River Falls, answering the Tigers’ goal with one of his own just 0:22 later to cut the deficit back to three at 6-3. Midway through the period, New Richmond scored two goals in just 30 seconds of game time and another a few minutes later, and that essentially put the game out of reach for the Wildcats at 9-3 with less than 8:00 to go.

Calvin Shrank got a score and Rock put in his second of the game very late, but River Falls ultimately fell by a score of 10-5.

It was a tough day on the ice for the Wildcats. The shots on goal were even throughout the first period, but they were outshot nearly 2-1 the rest of the way at 42-22. The penalty minutes were almost even; the difference was in the outcomes of the power plays. New Richmond converted on 3-5 whereas River Falls was 0-5.

Saturday was a similar outcome for the Wildcats, but the score doesn’t tell the whole story. The game wasn’t exactly “chippy” per se, but there were a lot of hard hits that knocked players clean off their skates in addition to it just being a very physical hockey game.

The Wildcats and the Warriors each got early goals, with Wyatt Hoepfl being assisted by Chase Weissinger and Andrew Amundson for River Falls. Things unraveled fast from there as Amery scored three more before the period was over and twice more in the opening minute of play in the second, blowing the game wide open at 6-1.

Early in the second, the Wildcats were having trouble getting it out of their D-zone, but as the period progressed that game script flipped. Even though they were down, River Falls kept battling and putting shots on goal, but to no avail. Even though the momentum seemed to have shifted, the puck just wasn’t going into the net, and they went into period three down by five.

Period three started with the Wildcats’ second 5-on-3 power play of the game, but they came up empty again. Amery’s goalie wasn’t letting anything past, and their defender did a good job of dumping it down the ice and killing time until they were back at full strength. No more goals were scored, and the game ended at 6-1.

Even though they lost by five, River Falls was in control for the majority of this game. After Amery scored twice in the first minute of period two, the Wildcats dominated every facet of the game over the remaining two periods. They outshot the Warriors 19-11, they had less penalty minutes and they continuously put pressure on them.

Head coach Cameron Wilken says he’s not worried about this two-game skid.

“The game was closer than the score says. The problem was we made mental mistakes at the beginning of the game, and you can't do that against a good team or they make you pay. That's what we weren't doing early in the year, but we did it today and we did it on Thursday against New Richmond,” Wilken said. “We did some good things. It's not hit the panic button or anything, but we have to be better, we have to be cleaner, and we have to be smarter.”

If there’s one thing that Coach Wilken says they’re going to be working on, it’s D-zone coverage.

“We’re better than the way we’ve been playing recently, we’ve just got to play better defense. We can’t expect our goalie to make 45 saves a night,” Wilken said. “I thought we played decent for 60% of the game, but the 40% of the game we didn't, they beat us. And that's what happens. Like I said, we’re not worried. We have a good group, and they get it. We’ve just got to be cleaner.”

Ben Johnson is the team captain for the Wildcats this season, and he says the whole team is on the same page as Coach Wilken.

“We got off to a good start, and then we just had a few mental mistakes. But, we're right there. We're working hard. It’s going to be a new year, and I think the future will be promising,” Johnson said. “It's still early in the season, and everyone in the locker room is bought into what we've been doing and what we've been practicing. No one is out, everyone's still working hard for the same thing, and I think we'll bounce back.”

Next up for the Wildcats is a two-game homestand. First, they will host a non-conference match against the Somerset Spartans on Monday at 8 p.m., and then Big Rivers Conference play will continue on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. when the Hudson Raiders come to town.