Sometimes all it takes is a little time to reflect in order to ignite your team’s scoring attack.

Moorhead junior forward Carter Randklev took a cross-checking penalty early in the second period, served his penance and then scored four goals to lead the Spuds to a raucous 9-5 win over Minnetonka on Friday night at Minnetonka’s Pagel Activity Center.

“He took an offensive zone retaliation penalty and spent some time to think about it,” Moorhead coach Jon Ammerman said after the game. “Then, he was a different player.”

Randklev and the Spuds were also a different team in the second period, totaling five goals after playing a sluggish first while spotting Minnetonka (8-6-0) a 1-0 lead on a goal by T.J. Rogers.

“We just figured that we needed to do something to come back and get a good second period,” Randklev said of the remarkable turnaround.

That something included upping the physical ante, with both teams hitting hard for the remainder of the game.

“When we have a little bit of emotion in our game, and when we have some jump, I like our team,” Ammerman said.

Rogers scored twice in the loss for the Skippers, ranked No. 1 in the latest Class AA state coaches’ poll, with Jack Bowman, Anders Johnson and Zach Van Sant scoring one goal each.

Randklev led the No. 19-AA Spuds with four goals, while the team got single tallies from Jack Stetz, Cole O’Connell, Jacob Holtgrewe, Kyler Kleven and Nolan Westra.

With the win, the Spuds extend their winning streak to four games, and have gone 6-0 against opponents from the Metro area.

“Their style of play is a little bit different than ours,” Randklev said of taking on teams with a much larger pool of players compared to Moorhead. “It’s always interesting playing against them.”

Adding to the intrigue is the fact that Minnetonka edged Moorhead in overtime in last season’s Bantam AA state title game, giving the Skippers their second consecutive Bantam AA state championship.

Both teams feature multiple players on their respective varsity rosters that squared off in that final. 

The last of Randklev’s goals came on an empty Skipper net, still impressive because of the way Randklev scored the goal.

Randklev collected the puck at the top of his own face-off circle, wheeled and fired, his aim true as he tacked on the ninth goal for the Spuds (10-3-1).

“Late in practice I kind of practice those ones,” Randklev admitted with a grin. “It just kind of came in a game situation.”

Ammerman may have summed it up best when he simply shrugged and said of Randklev: “He does things we can’t teach.”