Sports
Jacks fall short of nationals
Tyler Ohmann
02/07/2012
The Dakota College at Bottineau Lumberjacks had their hopes of making it to Nationals snuffed out last Saturday as they lost game four of a best-of-five series to the Williston State Tetons 6-2 at the Lumberdome.
It was the third consecutive victory for the Tetons in the Lumberdome. They previously won 3-0 and 1-0.
“Well little mistakes that we have been doing all year came back and hurt us again tonight,” stated DCB Head Coach Travis Rybchinski. “Bottom line is Williston capitalized on our mistakes and buried the chances they had and we didn’t.”
“The goalie for the Tetons made a couple huge saves in the second period to shut the door and then they came down and scored to make it 4-1 and we could not recover,” Rybchinski added.
The Jacks fell behind after the Tetons scored on a Julius Tamasy slapshot through a screen. Add an Ian Harvie wrist shot off a rebound and it was 2-0 WSC.
DCB responded less than 15 seconds later to cut the lead to one, but that was as close to the Tetons as they would get.
WSC scored four more times in the final two periods and DCB only once on a Jake Plutowski marker midway through the third.
Teton goaltender Jeff Dunaisky had 35 saves in the win.
“Even though they are a first year team, they had the experience in this game that made a huge difference,” Rybchinski stated. “I give credit to our boys as we did not quit and played hard to the final buzzer, it would have been easy to throw in the towel but we never did.”
Bruising Beavers
The loss wasn’t the only one the Jacks suffered on the week, they also fell to rival Minot State on Tuesday evening at the Lumberdome.
A cavalcade of Beaver power play goals led to an 11-3 victory.
“We did not get our feet going and spent the night in the penalty box,” Rybchinski stated. “We gave up five power play goals and took a lot of very poor penalties.”
The Beavers struck first on a Logan Herouf goal. They then added to their lead at 4:19 of period one with another marker, this one from from Garrett Ferguson.
Dan Lamb scored the first goal of his hat trick early in the second and another goal later in the period made it 4-1.
DCB answered back at 11:47 in period two on the first of two goals on the day from Chris Evans. Cole Reisenauer and Seth Serhienko assisted.
A second DCB goal in the period from Erick Paiment cut the lead to two, but from there the momentum shifted the Beavers way.
They would score once more in the second period and would then add six third-period goals, including one from former BHS star and North Dakota Mr. Hockey, Eric Herbel. Herbel also had two third-period assists.
Three of the Beavers six third-period goals came on the power play. The Jacks took seven penalties in the period.
The Jacks would add one more goal early in the third period as Reisenauer and Serhienko again assisted Evans for a power play goal.
“Tonight can best be described as disappointing,” Rybchinski stated. “We lacked energy and emotion and it showed.”
Cool down
With their national hopes dashed, the Jacks will play out their remaining schedule beginning with a trip to decorated Shattuck-St. Mary’s Prep in Faribault next weekend.
“It is very disappointing that we will not be going to Nationals this season out in New York but we are going to finish the season strong and try to knock off some very good teams in Shattuck, Williston State and Minot State,” Rybchinski stated.
The Jacks final game will be in Minot on Feb. 18 against the Beavers.