Sports
DCB hockey team drops three more games
Tyler Ohmann
11/20/2012
It was another rough and tumble week for the Dakota College at Bottineau hockey team as they fell in three straight games this past week, allowing 10 goals in each game.
“This week has been a tough week,” said Jacks head coach Travis Rybchinski. “We’ve had better competition and we’re just not where we need to be right now.”
First last Tuesday the Jacks traveled to Williston for their first game of the year against the rival Tetons.
Things did not go the way of the Jacks at all as the Tetons exploded for 10 goals, while the Jacks were unable to find the back of the net in a 10-0 shutout loss.
DCB’s luck did not turn around with a weekend home series against the Kenora Thistle senior men’s team.
First on Saturday evening the Jacks were overwhelmed by an early onslaught from the Thistles who scored three goals right out the gates to go up 3-0.
Freshman Logan Millican used assists from Reed Loucks and Seth Serhienko at 3:05 in the first to cut the lead to 3-1.
However, the Thistles scored three straight goals to extend their lead to 6-1 in the second period.
Then at 5:13 sophomore Cole Reisenauer scored on the power play. Millican earned a helper on the play.
However, the Thistles scored once more at the end of the second period, and then added three more goals in the third period to finish with a 10-2 win.
The Jacks were out shot 52-12 in the loss. Cody Brooks had 33 saves in the first two periods and then Derek Martin came in between the pipes and got three saves in the third period.
“The little mistakes end up turning into bigger mistakes and that’s in the back of our head,” Rybchinski said. “That’s what’s really hurting us right now. We’re not getting the puck out when we should, or we’re not making that pass, or we’re giving it up and running around in our zone.”
In Sunday’s series finale against the Thistles it did not go much better for the Jacks. DCB fell behind early again as the Thistles scored six times in the first frame.
The lead became 9-0 before the Jacks finally hit the board at 6:22 in the second period. That goal came off the stick of Millican with Spencer Archer getting the assist.
DCB looked to settle down after that as they allowed only one goal in the third and scored two more.
First at 13:33 Reisenauer turned a break away passes from Evan Alexius and Chris Watkins into the Jacks second goal as he went top shelf.
The Jacks struck again at 7:36 as Serhienko got his first goal of the week. Again Alexius came up with the assist.
Martin started in net for the Jacks and had 11 saves before being pulled for Brooks.
Brooks finished with 22 saves.
“That’s the better competition, that’s some of the reason and some of the reason is that some guys need to get better,” Rybchinski said. “We have to really shore up our defensive zone and guys have to buy into what we do, because obviously it’s not working when we give up 10 goals a game.”
The Jacks get a break this week as the game scheduled Wednesday against Minot State has been postponed until after the semester break.
Rybchinski said the Jacks are going to use that semester break to try and clear their heads and start fresh.
“They battled hard, and that’s one thing about this team even if the scores don’t indicate it, I think we’re working fairly hard. We just don’t have the skill to get some wins right now,” Rybchinski said. “We really need this break, and we’re really going to preach that it’s a fresh start, and that we’re 0-0.”
“It will give guys some time to heal and recover and clear their heads, and then we’ll start getting back to what we should be doing around here,” Rybchinski added.
After the three losses this week the Jacks are now 1-8 on the season.
Their next game will be against NDSU on Nov. 30.