Sports
Jacks season ends with series loss to Tetons
Tyler Ohmann
02/12/2013
The Dakota College at Bottineau hockey team’s quest for another National Title has ended this past weekend.
That’s because the Jacks lost their second game 6-4 to the Williston State Tetons in a best-of-three series on Sunday evening. The Jacks lost 10-1 in Williston on Wednesday to go down 1-0 in the series.
In Wednesday’s game the Jacks fell behind big early. The Tetons scored six first-period goals as they barraged the DCB net.
The Tetons scored twice more in the second and then took a 10-0 lead in the third period before the Jacks final got on the board.
The lone Jacks goal came from Michael Adams who used an assist from Zach McDonald to score with 2:13 left in the game.
However, the Jacks played a much better game on Sunday as they hosted the Tetons for game two of the series.
“They came out really hard and we did not get that save when we needed it so we got down 6-0 in the first ten minutes and it really was not much of a game after that,” stated Jacks head coach Travis Rybchinski. “I think that was a key indicator of experience, they are more experienced than us and it showed.”
The Tetons also won the inaugural series last year to advance to Nationals.
Game two started with a first period dominated by the Tetons. WSC scored first on an even marker early on in the period.
DCB’s Matt Mehlhoff tied the game on the power play at 16:16 in the first period. He took a pass from Lucas Lindholm and hammered a shot top shelf past Tetons goalie Corey McMahon.
However, it was all Tetons from there as they scored three more goals, two on even strength and one power play goal that put them up 4-1 after the first period.
DCB was not going down without a fight though.
The Jacks stepped up after that period whistle though as goalie Cody Brooks went a full 30 minutes, including all of the second period, before he let up a fifth goal.
Neither team hit the back of the net in the second period despite the Tetons 18-13 shot advantage.
In the third period the Tetons went up 5-1 before the Jacks were able to answer. Less than a minute later the Jacks answered as Logan Millican intercepted a Tetons pass and strove all the way down the ice to score a short handed goal.
Reinvigorated the Jacks used a couple penalties to their advantage to creep closer to WSC’s lead.
Millican scored his second goal of the game on a 5-on-3 advantage for the Jacks as he took a pass from Kyle Volk and swiped it past McMahon.
At 10:15 Millican struck again, earning his hat trick, once again on the power play. Nick Sutton assisted on the play as the Jacks climbed to within one, trailing 5-4.
“It was good to see Logan Millican really step up and get the boys going with some big plays,” Rybchinski stated. “He is a good player and when he is on he can be a good scoring threat.”
Despite several chances for both teams, neither team was able to shuffle in a goal as the time ticked away.
Eventually the Jacks pulled Brooks and got a nice look at the goal with less than a minute remaining.
The shot was stopped and a counter rush wound up in a Tetons goal to put the game away with 34 seconds left.
“I was really proud of our effort and us refusing to give up,” Rybchinski stated. “We showed we are a better team than our record and really played our best game of the season. It was nice to leave everything we had at the rink.”
Brooks was busy in net all night as he was pelted with Teton shot attempts. He finished with 53 saves in 59 opportunities. The Jacks had 32 shots on net in the loss.
“We had our ups and down all season but I thought we worked hard until the end and we showed a lot of Lumberjack pride,” Rybchinski stated. “I just wish we would of played that way (tonight) all season long.”
The Jacks finished the season on a eight game losing streak, concluding the season with a 5-23 record.