Sports

Jacks endure unusual week

By Tyler Ohmann

11/01/2011

The Dakota College at Bottineau Lumberjack Hockey team began their season on a bit of a roller coaster ride, and it had plenty of twists.

The first bump in the track came last Wednesday when the Jacks opened the season at newly-formed Williston State.

After striking first blood, the Jacks fell behind 5-1 and could not come back.
Seth Serhienko had a goal and an assist. Chris Evans scored the other Jacks goal in the third to make it a final score of 5-2. Goaltender Troy Chandler made 47 saves in the loss.

“We had spurts where we played well, and we had spurts where they capitalized on our mistakes,” said Jacks Head Coach Travis Rybchinski. “If you look at the stats the game was a lot closer than what it was.”

“For an opening game it was about what I expected,” Rybchinski added. “We were a little more nervous than I hoped for, but it was good to get our feet wet against a junior college opponent.” 

The Jacks came home to host the Bemidji State club team for a Friday night and Saturday matinee, or so they thought.

First, the Jacks rebounded and climbed to the highest of high’s in a 9-1 throttling of Bemidji.

The Jacks pummeled Bemidji goalie Aaron Carter with 66 shots. Serhienko scored two first period goals and assisted on another in the first period to give the Jacks a 3-0 lead.

Freshman Chad Miller scored in the first, second and third periods and also had an assist in the win.

Connor Guard scored the only Bemidji goal at 5:49 in the second. The Jacks blew the game out with goals by Cieklinski, Miller and Patrick Martin in the final frame.

A lot of the play in the game came from new recruits, which are mostly young guys straight from high school.

“Most of our recruits are young kids, but they are working hard at adapting to the college game,” Rybchinski said. “They are going to get a lot better as time goes on.”

When the Jacks got to the arena Saturday morning to play their second game against Bemidji, the next stretch of the roller coaster of a crazy week threw them for a loop.

They got there and noticed that Bemidji had taken all their things and presumably skipped town.

The game was not played, and the coaches and players were not too happy.

“They left in the morning without notice,” Rybchinski said. “What they did was wrong, but we are hoping to get more answers.”

The game is not likely going to count as a forfeit, but just as a cancelled game from the schedule according to Rybchinski.

The Jacks slipped back down the hill on Monday as they hosted Edge School Boys Prep Team for a Halloween matinee. Edge is one of the top prep schools in all of Canada, and is from Calgary, Alberta.

The game went poorly from the get-go for the Jacks who gave up the eventual game-winning goal in the first to Mitch Ferguson on the power play.

The Jacks successfully killed two other power plays in the period, but the man disadvantage came back to haunt them later.

In the second a power play goal from James Robinson extended the lead.
Three third period goals put the game out of reach, and despite out shooting Edge 38-26 the Jacks came away empty handed in goal scoring.
The Jacks went 0-for-5 on the power play and were 2-for-4 on the penalty kill.

Next up the Jacks will host NDSU club for a pair of games next weekend at the Lumberdome.

Rybchinski is taking the roller coaster ride in stride, however.

“One thing I really like is we are a lot better than we were a year ago at this time,” Rybchinski said. “That is a real positive.”

Friday they will play at 7:30 p.m., Saturday’s game is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.