DULUTH — In the early going, Duluth Denfeld coach Dale Jago has been fiddling with his lines to see what works for the Hunters and at least one of the changes seemed to pay off against Northern Lakes Thursday at the Essentia Duluth Heritage Center.
During a six-game skid that opened the season, Jago moved Tristin Nephew onto a line with Johnny Scott and Nolan Harju.
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“He plays the right way and over the puck properly,” Jago said. “He’s brought some cohesiveness to that line and it’s resulted in offensive chances.”
All three players finished the night with at least three points and Scott finished with a four-point night on two goals and two assists in a 5-2 win over the Lightning, putting a damper on former Duluth East coach Mike Randolph’s return to the Heritage Center.
The Hunters came out slow, Scott said, but following a Northern Lakes goal a little more than 6 minutes into the game, they seemed to “click.”
“We started working hard and moving the puck around better,” he said. “We were working it around the zone and we started to find some open spaces.”
Jago thought maybe his team had “a little hangover” after a nice game against Hermantown Tuesday, where the Hunters took a 3-1 lead in the first period before eventually falling 5-3.
“You’ve got to turn over the engine and get it going again and we weren’t going,” he said. “So I juggled the lines and sat some guys because we weren’t moving our feet. We were making small passes and we weren’t getting the puck deep. They got off to the lead and we had to wake up and get going.”
Randolph thought Northern Lakes got off to a good start, but the two goals late in the first period put the Lightning down, a spot where they’ve struggled.
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“We’re not very good chasing the game right now,” he said. “You could just see their confidence build and we were on our heels. We really didn’t get going once they got ahead, but that had a lot to do with their team.”
For Randolph, it was his first time coaching at the Heritage Center since resigning from his job at Duluth East — a position he held for 32 years. He recalled the Greyhounds locker room plastered with pictures of victories in the section and state tournaments and a bit of melancholy when he left.
“It was a very personal place for our team — it was a really special place,” Randolph said. “We got along really well with the staff. When I resigned there was a feeling of emptiness knowing that it was the end of a long run.”
When Northern Lakes needed a game near the holidays, Jago was happy to add the Lightning. Randolph was an assistant at Minnesota Duluth when Jago was a standout defenseman in the 1980s.
“When he was across town at East, he was the guy that kept the rivalry with Denfeld going,” Jago said. “He could have dropped us, we were A and he was AA and some of those teams were really good teams and he could have done what other teams have done and said we’re not going to play it.”
While Randolph might have been on the other side of the rivalry for most of his career, he was also an assistant with the Hunters when they made their first state tournament run in 1986.
Randolph recalled all the great East rivalries from his days on the Greyhounds bench, including Denfeld, but also Cloquet-Esko-Carlton and Grand Rapids.
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“The place was packed with lots of energy,” he said. “It went onto the ice and it was always a great game between those teams.”
While seniors like Scott and Nephew never played against a Randolph-coached East team, the Lightning showed some of the hallmarks of those old Greyhounds squads.
“They’re really well coached,” Nephew said. “They have great systems, they get up the ice and they don’t give up.”
After leaving the Greyhounds, Randolph spent two seasons at St. Thomas Academy — one as head coach — before moving to Northern Lakes. His first game this season was his 708th coaching victory of his career, moving him past Rocherter Mayo’s Lorne Grosso.
Randolph said he was happy to get the milestone win behind him and focus on the rest of the season — a season where the Lightning hope to knock off three-time Section 6A champion Alexandria Area.
“I’m really excited about it being behind me,” he said. “Someday, when I look back at it, I’ll probably appreciate it more, but right now, we’re in the process of putting the best season we can together.”
The Hunters are doing the same and they’re not going to let their slow start to the season get them down.
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“We started off the season a little slow,” Scott said. “We’re fine if people want to overlook us because we’re 2-7 — let them write us off.”
Denfeld will next play East at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Heritage Center.
Northern Lakes (4-3) will next play at Morris/Benson Area at 6 p.m. Jan. 3.
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