White Bear Lake showed why it's ranked in the top 20 in the state in Class AA to start the boys hockey season.
The Bears turned up their play for a stretch of just more than four minutes in the second period and pulled away from Rochester Century for a 6-2 non-conference victory on Saturday at the Rochester Recreation Center.
Senior defenseman Brandon Kautz scored for Century (0-1) at 7:09 of the second period to pull the Panthers within 2-1. But Mike Abrahamson's power-play goal at the 12:20 mark started a three-goal outburst in just 4 minutes, 9 seconds, that pushed the Bears' lead to 5-1.
Freshman defenseman Riese Zmolek, who assisted on Kautz's goal, scored Century's second goal. He one-timed a nice feed from Isaac St. Marie at the 9:21 mark of the third period. The Bears (1-0) answered back just 24 seconds later, though, as Jake Wahlin beat Panthers goalie Erik Wennberg (26 saves) to complete the scoring.
