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The Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights turned aside the challenge of the St. Francis Saints with a 4-1 victory to cap off Hockey Day Minnesota from the St. Louis Park Rec Center Saturday night.  Auggie Moore scored his first career high school goal and Chase Jungels continued his hot scoring hand to lead the Red Knights to their second straight victory.

Moore opened the scoring at 2:37 of the first period and Jungels goal came less than two minutes later.  Carter Roo added a goal in the second period that opened a 3-0 lead and Johnny Austin also scored a power play marker for the Red Knights in the third period for the commanding 4-0 lead.

"The guys came out with some very good energy in the first period and I thought we maintained that throughout the game," Red Knight coach Ken Pauly said.

After starting the season slowly and losing by large margins, the Saints have progressively improved and are finding their game in the defensive zone.  After going 2-8 their first ten games  and being out-scored by a 57-23 margin, he Saints have tightened things up defensively as they are 3-4 in their last seven games and the goal differential has been cut down considerably to a 27-21 margin on the positive side of the ledger for them.

"The game was never really in doubt as we controlled the play," said Pauly.  "But, St. Francis was committed to staying in a defensive shell and they received great goaltending. When a team does that this late in the season, goals can be hard to come by."

The Saints Lucas Carroll stopped Red Knight goalie Jalen Long's bid for the shutout with a goal at 14:14 of the third period.  Long made 19 saves in the game and the Red Knights out-shot their former North Suburban Conference foe by a 33-20 margin.  

The Red Knights have been looking for a balanced offensive attack and it was reflected last night as the hard-working Moore was rewarded for his efforts. Jungels has notched 4 goals and 3 assists in his last five games and has scored goals in each of his last two games providing an offensive spark for the Red Knights who improved their record to 12-4-2 on the season.  

"Auggie Moore was finally rewarded for a lot of hard work by scoring his first varsity goal. The team was pretty pumped up about that. Chase Jungels has been a quiet but steady offensive influence and we certainly need that."

The game presented by the Saints provided a different look for the Red Knights who had to fight through a team committed to the defensive game.  They still generated chances and that was something coach Pauly was hoping for and stated,  "The great thing about the St. Francis game is that it was not a blowout per se. They had some quality chances and Jalen Long had an opportunity to see some shot before the Eden Prairie game next Tuesday."

A difficult stretch stands before the Red Knights who take to the road for three straight games against tough opponents.  The Eden Prairie Eagles, Shattuck St. Mary's Sabers. and Elk River Elks are all on the schedule over the next week in a half before the team returns home for their final three games.  

"If you look at our remaining schedule there are no easy ones. It will be a fun and challenging stretch," Pauly concluded after the game.