On a cold winter's night in the north country, two underclassmen did the heavy lifting for the Northland Pines Eagles, propelling them to a 5-1 win over the visiting Point-Rapids Red Panthers Tuesday night at The Dome in Eagle River.

Mariah Miller and Sallie Spencer each notched a goal and two assists as the home squad improved to a 10-3 record midway through the season.

Pines came out early and were determined to put some pucks in the net, as shown by their 11-3 shot edge in the period. 

Red Panther goalie Emily Bubla was determined to show that her Christmas holiday performance (30 saves) against Pines was not a fluke, and did so for the first 15 minutes of the opening period.

The home girls dented the scoreboard first with just over a minute to play in the first.

Miller found a bouncing puck in the crease to the left of the Red Panther goalie and gave it a good home, acquainting it with the twine in the back of the net to give Pines a 1-0 lead. Spencer earned a helper on the play.

That's how the period ended.

The Red Panthers got some spark when they tied the game 28 seconds into the middle period while on the power play.

Carolyn Storch gathered in a loose puck in the right circle and fired it past Pines goalie Jenna Paez to tie the game at one.

Less than a minute later, a defensive lapse allowed Pines to take the lead for good.

Cali Sanborn took a pass in the neutral zone and skated past a pair of Point-Rapids defensemen and ripped a shot from the slot that beat Bubla to make it 2-1, with an assist to Emily Saltenberger.

Ten minutes later, Spencer scored with her shot from the left point to build a 3-1 lead. Miller got an assist on the goal.

A couple minutes later, Pines grabbed a 4-1 lead with Allison Sauvola's rebound goal, with assists to Gabrielle Herfindahl and Miller.

Pines held a three-goal lead and a 15-5 shot edge in the period.

Midway through the final period, Bubla stopped a 2-on-1 and a breakaway to keep the score at 4-1, but  a penalty would prove costly for the Red Panthers.

Kali Ebert found the puck to the right of the goalie and fired it netward, but Bubla's attempted 'mask save' was unsuccessful and the senior scored her 14th goal of the season to round out the scoring. Sanborn and Spencer notched helpers on the play.

Shots in the final period were 16-3 in favor of the home team.

Paez had a fairly quiet night on her end, stopping 10 of 11, while Bubla kept busy, making 37 saves on the night for Point-Rapids, who fell to 2-7-2.