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Warrior Hockey Keeps Their Streak Alive

By ADMIN, 01/08/13, 9:00AM CST

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The 8th ranked in Class A Warrior hockey team have run their unbeaten streak to six games.  Over the Christmas break they defended their Hockey-Town Holiday Classic tournament by beating Grafton 5 to 4 in overtime, Osseo 3 to 1, and tied International Falls 3 to 3.

This past weekend they were on the road at St. Cloud.  Friday they beat Cathedral 2 to 1 and then clipped the Tech Tigers 3 to 1.

In the Grafton game there was three goals scored in the first period with Warroad’s Kyle Sylvester and Jared Bethune getting two of them.

Warroad came on strong in the second with two goals by Luke Jaycox and a power play goal by Casey Anderson.

Grafton came back in a huge way, scoring three goals in the third to force extended time.

Sylvester came through for the Warriors when he got the game winner.  Warroad’s Justin King faced 27 shots and Grafton’s Zach Nelson saw 31 shots.

In the Osseo game Warroad came out and controlled the play for most of the first period. 

Warroad worked off a 5 on 3 deficit and then shortly after got on board first when Kobe Roth (Ben Smieja) took a pass, went on a break away and scored on a low shot. 

At the 14:48 mark of the second period Osseo turned the puck over in their zone.  Smieja (Roth, Bethune) was standing out front all by himself, he got the puck fed to him, he took his time, the goalie dropped down in the butterfly, and Ben went top shelf.

The play was little more even in the second period but Warroad had more scoring chances.

Eight seconds into the third period Sylvester (Nick Jaycox, Anderson) scored on a low shot that made a thud when it hit the back of the net. 

Osseo would break the goose egg when they scored with about five minutes left in the game.  It was a bang-bang play.  King slid across but couldn’t get there.

Osseo’s Conner Dahlberg faced 32 shot while King saw 30.

Warroad’s last game of the tournament was against I-Falls.  Warroad just needed a tie or better to win the tournament. The Broncos had to win the game to win the tournament because they came into the game with three points where as the Warriors already had four points.

Warroad came out and really controlled the play.  This led to a Smieja goal. He came down the left side, aimed it up, and shot low left side.

The Broncos responded at the 6:22 mark.  The puck was slid across King and directed in. King almost got a piece of it.

The Broncos would score two straight goals with the first one being a power play goal. The second one was on a tip shot.  The puck was looking as if it was gonna go wide right but the Bronco forward tipped it in the top shelf.

Warroad did not crack under pressure despite being down 1 to 3.  They kept skating and it paid off late in the period when Bethune (Sylvester, Roth) scored.

Warroad had two more quality chances, on one of them Roth made an incredible dangle, deke of the goalie but was robbed when the goalie made an acrobatic stop.

I-Fall’s goalie, Wesley Gunnerson, was the star of the game and the tournament.  He faced a high number of shots in all his games and was peppered with 72 of them by Warroad. 

Less than a minute into the third period Bethune (Nick Jaycox) would get his second of the game and tie the game at 3.  Bethune leads his team with 27 points (14G, 13A) on the season.

Both teams skated hard the rest of the period and into overtime but could not muster another goal. King faced 34 shots.

Kyle Sylvester and Jared Bethune were picked for the All-Tournament team.

In Fridays game against the 9th ranked Crusaders both teams scored their first goals in the second period.  Smieja (Bethune) tallied Warroad’s goal while short handed.

Roth got the game winer for the Warriors in the third.  Cathedral was a little short handed due to their top player, Austin Poganski, representing team USA at the World Junior Championships where he won a Gold Medal.

 

King faced 21 shots and Josh Robak saw 18.

 

The Tech Tigers came into Saturday game on a high note with an 8 and 1 record and winners of the St.Cloud Holiday hockey tournament.

 

Roth (Smieja, Bethune) got Warroad on the board in the first period.  Roth is second on the Warrior squad with 20 points (12G, 8A).

 

Anderson (Brandon Newhouse) put Warroad up 2 to 0 with a late score in the second.

 

In the third period Tech cut the lead in half with a power play goal.  Roth gave the Warriors breathing room with his second goal of the game to seal the 3 to 1 win.

 

King faced 25 shots and Tech’s Austin Althaus saw 24.

 

The Warriors now have 10 wins, 2 losses, and 1 tie on the season.  They have two games this week.  They host the Rams on Thursday and are at Crookston on Saturday.

 

Roseau is coming off an impressive 8 to 3 win over Holy Angels where they score 8 unanswered goal and now have a record of 8 wins, 3 losses, and 1 tie.