Sports
DCB earns second season victory on hostile ice against NDSU Bison
Tyler Ohmann
12/04/2012
It was an up and down weekend for the Lumberjack hockey team as the Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) squad won their second game in a split series with North Dakota State University Club (NDSU) club hockey team in Fargo.
First on Friday the Jacks won their second game of the season with a 7-4 victory over the Bison on their ice.
Both Zach McDonald and Logan Millican, both freshman, had hat tricks in the win for DCB.
McDonald kicked off the scoring in the first period as he evened the score 1-1 at 13:57 with a shorthanded and unassisted goal.
McDonald earned his second marker early in the second period that also evened the game. The goal came on the power play and Connor Drewry assisted. McDonald tied the game and earned his hat trick early of the third period as Millican and Danny Hosmer fed him on a shorthanded breakaway.
Millican struck next with the first of his three goals in the period which gave the Jacks their first lead of the game.
McDonald and Cole Reisenauer assisted on the play.
After the Bison re-tied the game Millican struck again with an unassisted marker with 1:30 left in the game, which wound up being the game winner that put the Jacks up 5-4. That wouldn’t be the last Jacks goal though as sophomore Seth Serhienko was able to sneak a goal into an empty net on a pass from Reed Loucks.
Millican capped off his night less than 30 seconds later as he took passes from McDonald and Robin Danielsson to earn his hat trick and give the Jacks a 7-4 win.
Freshman Cody Brooks, who along with Millican and Serhienko, was a former Bottineau-Rugby Braves standout, earned the win between the pipes with 39 saves in 43 opportunities.
“Friday night was our best game of the year and we got some production out of Millican and McDonald who played well and Cody Brooks made some big saves when we needed them,” stated Jacks head coach Travis Rybchinski. “It was a total team effort and they played hard for 60 minutes.”
On Saturday DCB held their own with the Bison again in the first two periods. After falling behind 1-0 the Jacks scored midway through the first period as Reisenauer took dishes from Danielsson and Serhienko to net a power play goal and even the score.
McDonald would be heard from again later in the period as he once again tied a game with his fourth goal of the weekend. Millican and Mike Adams earned helpers on the play.
However, NDSU began to breakaway in the second period as Nick Huffman scored twice for the Bison in the second period, both on the power play.
Danielsson would snatch another goal for DCB with seven minutes remaining in the second. Evan Alexius and McDonald assisted. The point was the seventh of the weekend for McDonald, who really stepped up his play.
But the Bison scored three straight unanswered goals in the final frame to earn a 7-3 win and force a split from the Jacks.
Dylan Snyder started in net for DCB, and finished with 39 saves on 46 NDSU shots.
“Saturday we could not get that energy we had Friday night. We did not move our feet and that led to us getting penalties which gave them four power play goals,” Rybchinski stated. “That is very disappointing as we just did not play very well after a good game on Friday.”
DCB is now 2-8 on the on the young season. And although they would have liked to have earned a sweep, Rybchinski thinks they should focus positives and turn them into more wins in the future.
“I think we were satisfied with the split. We were not ready on Saturday after winning the first night. We need to learn we need to be ready all the time and every shift,” Rybchinski stated. “There were a lot of positives on the weekend and we need to carry them over to this week.”
The Jacks play three times in the upcoming week starting with a 7:30 p.m. face off against rival Williston State tonight at the Lumberdome.
DCB will then travel to Ames, Iowa to take on Iowa State University for a pair of games over the weekend. They will then head into the semester break.