St. Louis Park, MN - There are many things that factor into a student-athlete's life and the most important is the academic side of things.  With finals week standing before the Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights, they set that aside for a moment and routed the Blake Bears by a score of 10-4 Thursday night at the St. Louis Park Rec Center.  

Spencer Naas exploded for 3 goals and 3 assists in a surge of six unanswered goals that spanned all three periods to put away the Bears. Naas reached a milestone in his high school career in the process as he notched his 200th career point Thursday night.

“It’s an impressive milestone for Spencer," coach Ken Pauly said.  "Anytime a player cracks 200 career point mark in high school hockey it’s quite an accomplishment. “

After yielding the games first goal to the Bears, the Red Knights exchanged goals, yet trailed 2-1 four minutes into the first period.  BSM (11-4-2) closed out the first period with three goals in an 8:41 span.  Chase Jungels tied the game at 8:01 and then Naas put his team ahead for good at 13:39.  

A back-breaking goal by defenseman Jack Lawton delivered a two goal lead for the Red Knights late in the first period.  It was one which the heady blue-liner jumped up in the play and finished a goal by going to the net for the 4-2 lead at 16:42 of the period setting up a surge that included the game's next three goals.  It resulted in a 7-2 lead midway through the third period.  

"Jack Lawton’s goal was a very big one. He made an outstanding play in jumping into the rush and going to the net.  After that, we took the game over," Pauly said.  Depth indeed took over yet the Bears delivered a game the Red Knight coach expected.  

“Blake showed a lot of spunk but our depth wore them down," Pauly noted.  There was more than depth that wore the Bears down, a team that returned 16 letter winners from last year of which 12 were still underclassmen.   The physical presence of players such as Even Fleming and the goal scoring of Zack Hale were huge contributors.

“Evan Fleming played tough and aggressive all night.  I like what I saw out of him," Pauly said.  "It was great to see Zack Hale net two goals tonight. If we could get his scoring punch going, then that could be big for us down the stretch here.”

Jungels delivered 2 goals and 2 assists and Peter Heimbold had 3 assists. Eight Red Knight players had multiple point games as they scored early and often.  From there, the Red Knights  went to work and never looked back.  The Bears responded with a pair of goals twenty-two seconds apart in the third period.  However, the Red Knights responded with three more goals over a 5:05 span of the third frame to capture the win and close out the game.  

Ryan Bischel earned his third victory of the season to improve his record to 3-0-2 on the season and made 24 saves in the effort.  The Red Knights out-shot the Bears by a 47-28 margin for the game including 29-14 over the final two periods.

The win was nice for the Red Knights yet their response given the week that has historically been a difficult one for any team to perform was even more impressive.  "I fully expected that type of game," Pauly said in his post game thoughts.  "We were not sharp out of the gates. The players had final exams this week and I have rarely had a team play very well during this week. That’s true for all sport across the board.”

Up next for the Red Knights is a Saturday evening game with the St. Francis Saints at the St. Louis Park Rec Center.  Game time is slated for 8pm.