The Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights saw their seven game unbeaten string come to and end Thursday night as they lost a nail biter to the Wayzata Trojans by a score of 2-1 at the Plymouth Ice Center.  

After a scoreless first period, the Trojans Mathew Freytag put his team on top at 7:42 of the second period.  Chandler Lindstrand opened a 2-0 lead at 4:41 of the third period.  Responding for the Red Knights just 1:12 later was Mark Kaske as he scored from an assist from Ben Newhouse.  

Kaske delivered his 9th goal of the season and Newhouse continues to rack up the points as his productivity has been impressive (4g-19a-23pts).  The junior continues to be a key component to the Red Knight effort who have received contributions throughout the year from many sources.  

The low scoring affair was important to the team as things begin to tighten up in the second half of the season.  "Very proud that the guys showed a great commitment to the defensive side of the ice," head coach Ken Pauly said after the game.  "It starts with Jalen Long. Jalen had a great night for us and the guys play hard in our end for him. Wayzata had two huge chances in the first period and he shut those down. I feel that really inspired the guys."

Pauly went on to add while he was pleasantly suprised by the low scoring affair that his team was disappointed with the loss. "I'm pleasantly surprised by the 2-1 score. I think it's really encouraging that we can play a great low scoring game," Pauly said. "The guys are disappointed in the loss. We should have generated more offense tonight then we did. wayzata had something to do with that, but we shot ourselves in the foot a few times as well."

Goaltender Jalen Long produced a 26 save effort in the game and matched the play of highly regarded Wayzata goalie Jens Vaughn Arens who made 27 saves for his Trojan team.  The game pitted two teams that are among the favorites to win the Section 6AA title and advance to the State Tournament this year.  

Round one went to the Trojans who improved their record to 10-3-0 on the season and have won 6 straight games.  At the present time, the top of the Section 6AA appears to begin with the defending section champion Trojans.  "The road to 6AA still goes through Wayzata but there's a lot of teams in the section on that interstate right now," Pauly stated.  "It (the race) should be interesting."

The Red Knights, who were 5-0-2 in their last seven games fell to 9-3-2.  With a few days off, the Red Knights next game is against the St. Thomas Academy Cadets this upcoming Tuesday and can be seen streaming live on BSMHockey.com.  They follow that up with the outdoor game at TCF Bank Stadium Saturday, January 11th against the Minnetonka Skippers in an outdoor game.

Pauly is pleased with how things are shaping up with his team and said, "Overall, things are coming together very nicely. We have a huge week coming up with STA and Tonka."