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Cisar conquers another opponent

By Walker Orenstein, MN Hockey Hub staff, 01/14/12, 8:00AM CST

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Josh Cisar scores four goals in Moose Lake's victory over Minneapolis

Sometimes in hockey, statistics can be misleading. For Josh Cisar in Moose Lake’s 5-4 win over Minneapolis, they tell the entire story.

The senior forward scored four goals and tacked on an assist on Saturday Jan. 14 at Parade Ice Garden in Minneapolis.

Cisar had a stick in every goal for the Rebels including two in the third period, moving him into first place in points in the state of hockey with 61. His 37 goals also lead the state, and his 61 points are nine more than any other player not wearing a Moose Lake uniform.

“Tonight, he definitely helped us, he always does,” Moose Lake coach Josh Gamst said. “He’s got great poise with the puck and he worked hard.”

For Cisar, capturing the point lead in the state is especially sweet considering he passed his brother, Tyler Cisar, who has 57 points. Tyler was out for the game, serving a one game suspension for a checking-from-behind call in the Rebel’s previous game against Northern Lakes.

“I love to see him on top, and we always battle for it game-by-game,” Josh said. “I just happened to pass him tonight but I’m sure he’ll be back up there next game with me.”

For now, Josh stands alone, and Gamst knows the reason.

“He does have a good shot,” Gamst said. “He’s kinda north and south, he’s fast, he’s big, he’s strong and he’s got a good shot so he’s hard to defend that way. The puck comes off his stick quick, and lots of times it does find the back of the net.”

Last season, Josh finished third in the Cisar family point race, ending behind his brothers Zach and Tyler with 45 points. In the offseason, he worked hard to win bragging rights. To train, Josh lifted plenty of weights, rushed for 15 touchdowns on the football team and shot a self-estimated 15,000 pucks to hone his ability as a sniper.

It shows.

Three of Josh’s four goals came on clean shots, and all of them were very low or even on the ice. Minneapolis goaltender T.J. Mosley clearly wasn’t ready for them, and even got beat on a bad-angle shot near where the boards and the goal line meet.

Even Cisar was a bit perplexed.

“Everytime, I just shot it low to look for rebounds, but it happened to go five-hole every time,” he said. 

“We shoot low in practice so I do it in the games, and it just happened to go in tonight.”

Minneapolis coach Shawn Reid knew that Cisar was going to be a handful, but he didn’t expect the explosion of points that took down his team.

“Whatever strategy we had obviously didn’t work,” Reid said. “He’s a phenomenal player, and he’s a goal scorer. Our message to the guys was just ‘if he has the puck, we gotta play defense, play defense, play defense, and don’t let him shoot.’ We let him shoot, and he tore us apart.” 

Henry Christman shines bright for Novas

Although Minneapolis lost 5-4 to Moose Lake Area, junior Henry Christman made his mark and kept the Novas battling back from multiple deficits.

In the first period, when the Rebels went on top early, Christman found some space in the slot and found top-shelf against goaltender Gage Mohelsky. The goal ignited the crowd and tied the game.

After a second period where Minneapolis sent a barrage of shots towards Moose Lake Area and dominated play, the Novas found themselves down 2-1 and frustrated.

Just 44 seconds into the third, Christman again played hero, turning around the sour second and putting a beautiful backhander past the blocker of Mohelsky.

After the game, Christman received some well-deserved praise from his coach Shawn Reid for his efforts.

“Henry is a very very steady player,” Reid said. “He’s quick, he’s tenacious, he has a very quick release, he knows where to be on the ice-- he’s a very very good player. I have every confidence in him playing in every facet of the game, power play, penalty kill, 5-5, 4-4.”

Christman now has 28 points on 11 goals and 17 assists for the season, which is second in every category behind star forward Newt Fuller. Christman and Fuller play on separate lines, in a spread-the-wealth type strategy that works out very well for the Novas.

“It really doesn’t matter who Henry is playing with, he’s going to do a very good job,” Reid said. “Same with Newt, it doesn’t matter who he’s playing with he’s gonna create opportunities. If I split them up hopefully we have two lines that can create opportunities, and they’re on the same line we need other players to step up and take that offensive charge.”

Christman, a team leader, said that the team was frustrated that they couldn’t score as much but going forward there were lessons to be learned from the loss.

“Just stay positive and work together as a team and just try to put it in the net,” he said.

Reid agreed with Christman’s thoughts.

“We were buzzing the offensive zone, we had lots of opportunities. Any time you get close to fifty shots that’s a very good sign,” Reid said. “What we try to do is keep it as positive as possible, there’s a lot of good things we can take from this game.”

Statistics, Summary

game recap

Josh Cisar scored four goals and notched an assist as Moose Lake upended Minneapolis  5-4 on Saturday Jan. 14, at the Parade Ice Garden in Minneapolis.

The third period was a back-and-forth affair, with both teams scoring three times. Cisar scored the last two goals for the Rebels, both on low shots that beat Novas goaltender T.J. Mosley.

Cisar put the Rebels on the board first when he found the net in the first period. He was even with a defender and had enough space to get a shot off.

Minneapolis answered when junior forward Henry Christman scored on a top-shelf shot past sophomore goaltender Gage Mohelsky.

The second period belonged completely to the Novas, who outshot Moose Lake 16-4 and dominated the offensive zone. Unfortunately for Minneapolis however, it was the Rebels who came out on top with Josh Cisar’s second goal of the night.

While on the penalty kill, Cisar rushed the puck up the ice and cut across the front of the Minneapolis net. While cutting he didn’t drag the puck across, leaving it to drift in past junior goaltender T.J. Mosley.

Mohelsky stopped 45 shots while Mosley had 11 saves for Minneapolis.

1. Josh Cisar, Moose Lake
Cisar took over the state scoring leader with four goals and an assist. He now has 61 points on the season (37 goals, 24 assists) and moves past his brother Tyler Cisar who has 57 points (32 goals 25 assists).  

2. Gage Mohelsky, Moose Lake
The sophomore goaltender stopped 45 shots and kept Moose Lake in the game, especially during the second and third periods when he was peppered. Mohelsky has started every game for the Rebels.

3. Henry Christman, Minneapolis
Christman was all over the place for the Novas, notching two goals. He is second on his team in scoring with 28 points (11 goals, 17 assists) and he pulled Minneapolis back into the game twice.

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