Sports

Braves bounce back with region victories

By Tyler Ohmann

01/10/2012

An exciting weekend produced two region wins for the Bottineau-Rugby Braves on visiting ice this past weekend.

First the Braves nabbed a shoot out victory in a close game over Jamestown on Friday. Saturday the Braves used an explosive offense and tough defense to get a 10-1 win over Mandan.

In Friday’s shoot out win Braves leading scorer, Logan Millican stepped up with a hat trick performance that included the game-tying goal in the third period and a shootout goal that pushed the Braves past Jamestown for the second time this season.

Millican’s first goal came in the first period and cut the Blue Jays lead to 2-1 and shifted the momentum the way of the Braves. Sophomore Harrison Aide and senior Ging Martin assisted.

Senior Nick Monson tied the score in the second period with a shorthanded marker from an assist by Luke Amsbaugh.

After Jamestown led 3-2 heading into the final period, Millican scored two straight goals for the Braves to take a 4-3 lead. Amsbaugh and Volk assisted on the first goal to tie the game at three. Aide and Monson assisted in the go-ahead goal.

The Blue Jays scored the game-tying goal with 4:35 to go in the third period.

Head Coach David Hoff thought that penalties put the Braves in a tough spot in the game.

“We have had some very exciting games with Jamestown the last few years and this last one was no different,” Hoff stated. We made it tough on ourselves in Jamestown with nine penalties. The penalties just gave them too many opportunities to score and they took advantage of it.”

However, neither team was able to score in the extra period and under new rules the game was to be decided via shoot out.

After Jamestown was denied by Cody Brooks on the first attempt, Aide came to the rescue, scoring to put the Braves up 1-0. Brooks denied the second attempt by the Blue Jays as well and Millican put them away, hitting the back of the net for the fourth time in the game.

Hoff is happy with the shoot out, and was one of the people who pushed to have shoot outs become part of the game.

“I am a member of the National Federation High School hockey rules committee. The ability to use shoot outs to determine a winner in games was a rule change that I proposed this past year,” Hoff stated. I thought it would create a lot of excitement in the high school game.”

Hoff also thought the shoot out provided a great show for the fans on Friday.

“Obviously we were on the winning side of the shoot out against Jamestown but I thought it was a great atmosphere,” Hoff stated. “Cody Brooks came up with two big saves in the shoot out and Harrison and Logan scored goals on real nice moves.”

Brooks finished with 32 saves in 36 opportunities on the night.

Millican again came up big on Saturday night as the Braves remained undefeated in the region with a 10-1 win over Mandan in Mandan.

Millican again had a hat trick scoring three times in the first two periods to help Bottineau-Rugby surge past Mandan in the battle of both Braves squads.

Senior Andrew Lorenz kicked off the scoring for the Braves in the first. Levi Kippen was credited with an assist on the play.

Millican then scored two straight for Bottineau, getting assists from Aide on both goals and Martin on the first.
Senior Kyle Volk scored the fourth Braves goal in the second period on a pass from Cody Longie. Millican scored his third goal of the game to give Bottineau a 5-1 lead in the second. Martin and Aide again assisted.

Hoff is impressed with Millicans effort throughout.

“Logan Millican had a very solid weekend. He is really learning how to play complete games,” Hoff stated. “He is working hard to play 51 minutes each night. When he does he will get a lot of scoring opportunities.”

In the third Volk scored his second marker of the night on an unassisted goal. Volk then threaded a pass to Jackson Bernstein to garner an assist, which impressed Hoff as well.

“Kyle Volk really played well against Mandan,” Hoff stated. He had two really nice goals and a great pass to Jackson Bernstein for a nice goal.”

Also scoring for Bottineau in the third were Longie from Lorenz, Cody Bedlion from Zach Kihle and Aide from Monson and Longie.

Brooks had 34 saves in the win for Bottineau-Rugby, their sixth region win of the season.

“It was a very good weekend for us to pick up two wins in the region on the road,” Hoff stated.

Bottineau-Rugby now sits in a tie with Minot for second place in the West Region with 12 points. The Braves are 6-0 in the region and 7-3 overall. Minot is 6-1 in West Region play and 8-4 overall. Bismarck Century sits atop the region at 7-0 with 16 points.

Bottineau will host now fifth place Bismarck High on Saturday in Bottineau. But before that show down the Braves will host a special non-conference game at 5 p.m. in Bottineau against Bossevain, and will also play at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in Rugby against Williston.

Notes:

•  Logan Millican sits in second place in the state in scoring with 25 points (18 goals, seven assists) after his six goal weekend. He is currently two points behind Jared Olson of Hazen-Beulah despite having played four less games than Olson according to www.ndhighschoolhockey.com.
• Harrison Aide is also in the top ten in the state in scoring with 18 points to his name coming off of six goals and 12 assists in only nine games.
• Senior net minder Cody Brooks is 7-3 and 6-0 in region play this season in net and has a 3.20 GAA in 10 games this year. He also has three shutouts and two overtime victories to his name. He has 256 saves on 288 opportunities for a .888 save percentage.