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2014 Ranger Raffle Winners
Ranger – Rick Corneliusen
MN Wild Jersey – Gordy Streiff
Slim’s Resort Fishing Trip – Lisa Marvin
Super 8 stay – Ashley Tofstad
$500 – Roger Koster
$100 – Joe Knutson, Scott Mattson, Jane Moorhead, Shelly Kleinschmidt
$50 – Steve Bengston and Mike Flick
The Warrior boys had two games on their schedule this past week. On Thursday, they defeated the Rams, 4-3, in overtime and on Saturday night they beat Crookston, 3-1.
In the Roseau game, the play went back and forth in the first period with some hitting. The Rams had two quality scoring chances in the last four minutes of the period and outshot the Warriors, 11-3.
Coach Jay Hardwick stated, “We didn’t have a different game plan against Roseau, we just focused on needing to be aware of when their top players where on the ice and trying to limit their chances.”
The second period was an emotional roller coaster for the Warroad fans. They saw their team go down 2 goals to nothing after a power play goal by Alex Halstengard 2:34 into the period. On the play, the puck was slid across the crease and tapped in on the back side.
It wasn’t until 4:48 left of the period before Warroad got their first shot on goal for the period.
The Rams were moving the puck around magically and at the 4:13 mark, they got their second goal (Tanner Okeson). Justin King was caught way out of position and the net was wide open for Okeson to put it in.
“When we got down, 2-0, I made one change to the lines to try and better match up defensively and just told the boys that we needed to win more battles in the defensive zone,” said Hardwick.
It only took one minute for Kobe Roth (Kyle Sylvester, Zach Johnston) to strike back for Warroad. Roth’s shot deflected off of a Rams defenseman, hit the goalie, then the inside of the post and trickled in.
Forty seconds later, Roth (Nick Jaycox, Johnston) tied the game at 2. There was a draw to the right of the Ram’s goalie. Warroad won the draw. Roth slipped to the left of the goalie all by himself. He was found with a pass; he had all the time in the world to size it up and he put it top left side.
Jared Bethune had a good scoring chance early in the third when he busted out for a semi-contested breakaway. A Ram defenseman was able to get back and get a stick on Bethune and the goalie made a terrific save.
The play at the beginning of the third period was really frantic. Both teams were slapping at the puck and fighting for position on the ice.
Midway through the period, Matt Harrison scored his first varsity goal and put Warroad up 1 to the dismay of the Rams fans. There was a pass from behind the net, the goalie was down in the butterfly, there was shot and then Harrison put in the rebound.
With 3:26 left, the Rams scored on the power play. The right defenseman had the puck on the blue line. He passed it diagonally through the Warrior defensive box and Alex Strand turned on it and one-timed it into the net.
Neither team could muster another goal in regulation, but early in overtime, Justin King made 2 quality saves.
At the 6:49 mark, it appeared that Roseau scored the game winner, but the referee quickly waved it off to the ire of the Rams fans and coaches due to the net being knocked off.
Moments later, a Ram forward busted into the Warroad zone down the left side, got loose and walked in on King. The player went to his back hand and just barely missed putting it in the top shelf. Bethune was then tripped up inside his blue line and a rare overtime penalty was called.
While on the power play, Warroad scored the game winner with 3:44 left. There was a shot from the point, Bethune was out front and he tipped the shot with the shaft of his stick and it got by Ryan Anderson.
The Warroad fans went nuts. The Warrior players poured out of their bench and mobbed Bethune in the corner.
Hardwick said, “This game was very special for me. Every game is important, but the Roseau games are always a big deal. It was nice to get a victory in my first game against them as a head coach.”
King faced 28 shots and Anderson saw 21.
“I felt the most important thing that the boys did in this game in order to win was that they didn’t quit working. We started slow in the first period and found ourselves down, 2-0, in the second, but we battled back to tie it and eventually took the lead. We stuck to the game plan and kept our composure even when things weren’t going our way. I think our work ethic and perseverance allowed us to put ourselves in the position to eventually win the game.”
In the Crookston game, Jared Bethune (Roth) got the lone goal in the first period. Kyle Sylvester (Brandon Newhouse, Casey Anderson) and Casey Anderson got the other 2 goals in the second period.
Crookston got their lone goal in the third period.
King faced 25 shots and Crookston’s Parker Epema saw 26.
Warroad has three games on their schedule this week. They will be at home Tuesday against Bemidji and Thursday against TRF and on the road at Moorhead on Saturday.
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.