Sports
DCB caps tough week with wins
Matthew Semisch
01/20/2015
The Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) hockey team isn’t pleased with how last week began, but the Lumberjacks like how it ended.
A four-game week for DCB started in earnest on Tuesday night when arch-rival Williston State visited the Bottineau Community Arena. Tuesday’s game was the Lumberjacks’ first against the Tetons in two nights, as DCB visited Williston on Wednesday.
DCB and the Tetons are two of only 10 NJCAA junior college hockey teams in the country and the only ones in Region XIII, so each game is a highly heated affair. They were perhaps too heated last week for DCB’s liking, however, as the Lumberjacks fell 6-1 to the Tetons both at home on Tuesday and on Wednesday night in Williston.
The Jacks’ struggles on Tuesday were largely of DCB’s own making, as it conceded four power play goals to the Tetons.
Many of DCB’s problems against Williston last week, Jacks head coach Travis Rybchinski said, were issues that also hampered his team in the first half of the season.
“A lot of the problems here we had in the first semester,” he said. “When we lose by more than one or two goals, a lot of that is down to that we give up too many power play goals, and we didn’t get a stop when we needed it or we didn’t clear the puck when we needed to.
“We were shorthanded too often, too, and on bad penalties, and we need to stop doing that.”
Wednesday’s 6-1 loss to the Tetons at Williston’s Agri-Sports Complex was DCB’s seventh loss in a row. That string dated back to a 4-3 loss at home to the University of North Dakota’s club team on Dec. 6.
The Jacks’ long losing streak soon came to an end, though, when North Dakota State visited the Bottineau Community Arena last weekend. DCB shed the string on Friday night in a 3-1 win before besting the Bison 6-2 on Saturday afternoon.
On Friday night, the Jacks scored all three of their goals in the third period. After trailing NDSU 1-0 going into the final frame, Ethan Hicks tied the game at 4:29 of the period before Marcus Triezenberg netted the eventual game-winner moments later at 6:13.
An insurance goal from Sherman Lovett with 7:25 left to go then put the result on ice.
DCB sophomore goaltender Ryan Miner, who Rybchinski sat for the Jacks’ rematch with Williston on Wednesday, bounced back well on Friday in a 31-save effort.
On Saturday afternoon, DCB clinched a sweep of the Bison. Thanks in large part to a hat trick from freshman forward Phoenix McElroy-Scott, the Jacks knocked off NDSU for a fourth time this season, this time by a 6-2 count.
Marcus Enqvist scored twice in Saturday’s first period for the Lumberjacks to help set the pace, and Triezenberg found the back of the net for the second time in as many days.
DCB (6-13-0) only has six more regular season games left, including this weekend’s series at St. John’s (Minn.), before a best-of-three Region XIII playoff against Williston.
The Jacks feel, however, that their sweep of NDSU could serve as a springboard toward bigger and better things.
“The Williston games were tough and we were hoping to do a little better than we did,” Miner said. “But I think we got out of this weekend well and pulled together as a team and got two wins we needed, and we’re just looking to move forward from here.
“We don’t have many games left, but we’re going to do the best we can, work together as a team and get ready for the playoffs against Williston.”
DCB’s next home games will take place Jan. 30-31 against Finlandia.