North/Chippewa Falls Hockey notes

For all you diehard hockey fans out there, here's a few tidbits from tonight's matchup between Eau Claire North and Chippewa Falls that didn't make tomorrow's story.

North

-- North finally got a reprieve on the blue line with the return of senior defenseman David Grunst to the starting lineup Tuesday night. Grunst had been out since suffering a broken wrist against Hudson Dec. 13.

Grunst, who has been practicing, was sporting a cast on his wrist.

"For his first game back I thought he did fine," North coach Tom Bernhardt said.

His return, however, didn't keep Bernhardt from mixing up his pairings on the blue line, as forwards Derrik Dillon and Andrew Tylka continued to see time at defense.

-- Speaking of line changes, Bernhardt continued to mix and match combinations to try and spark some kind of offensive consistency. North sported a top line of Derrik Dillon-Derek Lund-Ethan Blodgett and a second line of Keillor Eggen-Ryan Iverson-Tim Shea. Joey Sigurdson and Andrew Tylka both saw regular action as well, but appeared to mix and match with members of the second line throughout the game.

Jake Kamenick saw spot action while Cody Matthes saw his most extensive action of the year in the third period.

Chippewa Falls

-- The Cardinals were without first-line center Jesse LaForest as he recovered from a concussion suffered against Rice Lake. According to coach Scott Parker, LaForest will evaluated on Thursday and Parker hopes he will be able to play next Tuesday against Medford.

-- Senior Chuck Hubbard notched his first points of the year when he assited on Justin Reed's third period goal. Hubbard, along with sophomore Josh Armstrong, saw their most extensive action of the year with injuries forcing coach Parker to bring them up from the JV squad.


- Adam Parks