Benilde-St. Margaret's Boys' Hockey

Pat Borer had two goals and an assist and Ben Sauer had a career-high three points as Benilde-St. Margaret's wrapped up its fourth consecutive North Suburban Conference title with a 7-1 win over Robbinsdale Cooper.

Sauer and his linemates, Dan Pemberton and Pat Cron, got things rolling after a slow start. The trio forechecked the Hawks and forced a turnover, which resulted in Pemberton scoring from a pile up in front of the home team's net with 11 minutes, 34 seconds gone in the opening period.

It took just 37 seconds for BSM to get on the scoreboard again. Dan Kuenzi and Brett Patterson made a couple of quick passes along the left-wing boards to get the puck to Will Nelson, who got the puck at the top of the left faceoff circle and proceeded to snap a shot over the glove of Cooper netminder Trent Kallas.

Goals by Borer and Pemberton in the first three minutes of the second period doubled BSM's lead and Cron tallied at the 10:21 mark to make it a five-goal lead before Sam Morgen got behind the Red Knight defense and put the Hawks on the scoreboard to send the game into the second intermission at 5-1.

Christian Horn scored his team-leading 23rd goal of the season, a short-handed effort, 6:33 into the final period to restore the five-goal lead and Borer added his 12th of the year with 3:26 to play to finish the scoring.

Already missing John Duda and Gunnar Knutson due to injuries, co-captain Bryan Glynn was also out of the lineup Thursday due to injury, missing his first game since joining the varsity lineup as a sophomore in 2006-07, and the Red Knight lineup was different that usual.

"Brian Glynn’s absence really put our lines out of whack tonight," head coach Ken Pauly said. "Our top two lines were a little out of synch and the power play was brutal."

Still, Pauly admitted, there were some bright spots. Borer saw significant time at forward while others earned their mentor's praise.

"Pat Borer’s presence at forward gave us some jump that we didn’t seem to have," Pauly said. "Patrick Daly looks more and more like a leader on our blue line each night. He was very solid again, and Dan Pemberton had some effective shifts tonight. He was a bright spot at forward."

Even though his team wasn't sharp, Pauly feels ready for the playoffs.

"While we didn’t look the way we’d like tonight, I’m confident that our team will come out with a lot of jump for the section playoffs," he said. "We know how we need to play and it’s do or die time.

"As we prepare for playoffs, we can look back on our regular-season effort with the satisfaction of accomplishment. A conference title and a 20 regular-season victories is the type of season all high school teams shoot for in this state."

The Red Knights will begin their quest for a return trip to the state tournament Feb. 26, when they open Section 6AA play. Seeds for the section tournament will be announced Sunday, Feb. 22.