Sports
Braves extend win streak to seven
Tyler Ohmann
01/22/2013
It was another strong week for the Bottineau-Rugby (BR) Braves and junior Harrison Aide.
Aide notched five goals and 11 assists in three more wins, giving the Braves seven straight wins and moving them into fourth place in the West Region standings.
The week began with the Braves downing visiting Bossevain on Tuesday evening 11-5.
It was all BR from the out set as Cody Longie scored to start the game, taking a pass from Aide to put the Braves up 1-0.
Aide scored a goal of his own to give Bottineau their second goal. Andrew Hill and Luke Amsbaugh earned helpers on the play.
Bottineau had a 3-1 lead after one period thanks to a Hill first-period goal. Aide and Longie earned assists on the play.
The scoring barrage continued for BR as Cody Bedlion got in the action in the second period. Aide again had an assist on the goal.
Aide was involved in three more goals in the period as he and Amsbaugh assisted on a Wyatt Johnson goal, he and Longie assisted on another Johnson goal and Aide scored himself with a helper from Nigel Hageness to put Bottineau up 7-3 after two periods.
“Wyatt Johnson scored a couple of real nice goals,” stated Braves head coach David Hoff. “He’s really figuring out his role on the power play.”
BR scored four more times in the final frame to earn an 11-5 win.
Bedlion scored his second goal of the game as Noah Grant and Braden Pewe earned assists on the play.
Amsbaugh got into the scoring fray for the Braves. Aide and Longie had helpers on the play.
Hageness scored later in the third period as Pewe notched his second assist of the game.
To close out the scoring Tanner Lunder scored his first career goal as a Brave. Johnson assisted as Lunde snuck it past Bossevain netminder Mark Tripp.
The Braves out shot the Broncos 37-21. Riley Monson finished with 16 saves in net for BR.
“It was a good game for us in that we really got to play a lot of players more than normal,” Hoff stated. “We tried to give our second and third units a lot of ice time as the game played out. We play a lot of games in the next few weeks so this was good for us.”
The Braves continued their winning ways as they hit the road for games at Hazen-Beulah and Dickinson.
First on Friday the Braves pitched a shut out against the North Stars as Monson had 25 saves to earn his third shut out of the year in a 7-0 win.
BR scored twice in the first period to get a good start to the game. Scoring first was Amsbaugh as Aide got his seventh assist of the week.
Longie scored later in the period as Aide again was involved with the assist on the play.
The Braves pelted North Stars goalie Tyler Murschel in the second period getting five goals past him.
Scoring started with Aide threading a pass to Hill to BR up 3-0.
The Braves took a 4-0 lead after Hageness took passes from Pewe and Bedlion and hit the back of the net.
Amsbaugh scored his second goal of the contest later in the period. Aide and Hill earned helpers on the play.
Aide then scored twice more in the period to make it the final of 7-0. Longie and Hill had assists on the first goal, while Amsbaugh assisted on the second Aide goal.
On Saturday BR got a little revenge on Dickinson on the Midget’s ice. Dickinson was the last team to beat the Braves back on Dec. 1 in Bottineau as they got a shoot out win in a 5-5 tie.
BR fell behind 1-0 in the opening period, but Aide came to the rescue to tie the game at one with an unassisted marker.
Longie took a pass from Hill later in the period to put BR up 2-1.
Neither team found the net in the second period, but the Midgets tied the game early in the third period.
That’s when Longie came up with the late-game heroics as he was able to beat Dickinson goaltender Jamison Gray with 10.2 seconds left. Aide and Amsbaugh assisted on the play.
“I didn’t think we were real sharp on the weekend but it was a nice road trip picking up two region wins,” Hoff stated. “I thought we seemed a little
sluggish both days. We seemed to let the play come to us rather than dictating play. I thought both of our opponents played hard against us.”
However, Hoff was glad the Braves pulled out the win against Dickinson on Saturday, which he said will really help them down the road.
“The win in Dickinson was a good win for the team,” Hoff stated. “It’s good for the guys to have to play in a tight game like that and make a
play in the last 10 seconds to win it.”
The Braves next game is a makeup contest against Williston at 5:30 p.m. tonight in Rugby. They then take on the West Region’s top team Bismarck Century at 7:15 p.m. on Saturday in Bismarck.
BR also played last night at home in an important contest with Minot, but scores and stats were unavailable by press time.