Sports
Jacks hockey earns season’s first sweep over SDSU
Tyler Ohmann
11/26/2013
Things appeared to turn around at the right time for the Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) hockey team as they earned a home sweep of the South Dakota State University (SDSU) Jackrabbits.
The Jacks skated past the Jackrabbits 9-1 on Friday and 5-1 on Saturday afternoon to earn the sweep. Both SDSU goals came late in the third period.
On Friday the Jacks scored early and often as they took care of SDSU 9-1.
DCB scored twice in the first period as sophomore Kyle Volk found the back of the net and freshman Brett Hebel scored less than 30 seconds later.
Casey Barile and Drew Ross assisted on the Volk goal, while Cody Bronson and Danny Hosmer earned helpers on Hebel’s.
Connor Hicks scored his first collegiate goal in the second period to put the Jacks up 3-0. Barile earned his second assist on the night on the play.
“Many guys got their first college goals so that was a plus and we put a lot rubber on net,” stated Jacks head coach Travis Rybchinski.
Another of those first collegiate goals came in the third period as Ethan Hicks netted a goal with 7:12 remaining in the final frame. He was assisted by Evan Alexius and Anthony Mancini. Before that Alex Herman notched an unassisted marker and Lucas Lindholm scored, and those trio of goals put DCB up 6-0.
Hebel, who asssited on the Lindholm goal, notched his third helper later in the period as Bronson pushed it past Gil Haugan. Also assisting was Lindholm.
The Jacks closed out the scoring with two more goals, one from Herman and one from Matt Mehlhaff. Earning helpers on the goals were James Kelly, Reed Loucks, Volk and Mancini.
Many of the DCB goals came on the rebound, and that is something that the Jacks would like to see more of.
“We’ve been working on the dirty areas a lot,” Loucks said. “Hopefully we can keep that up and bury a lot of goals.”
The Jacks out shot SDSU 56-18 as Haugan stopped 47 DCB shots and Ryan Miner earned the victory stopping 17-of-18 Jackrabbit shots.
On Saturday the Jacks again took to the offensive in a clean game and came away with a 5-1 win.
Jesse Fontaine got the start in net for DCB and stopped 17-of-18 shots to earn the win. The Jackrabbits scored with six seconds left in the third period to ruin Fontaine’s shutout.
“The goaltenders are key, and when they get around us forwards the defensemen have been playing pretty good at home,” Loucks said. “Hopefully we can keep that up and the goaltenders can keep it out of the net.”
DCB again got offense from some new sources as they got a few new faces on the ice.
Herman scored his third goal of the weekend in the first period to draw first blood. Volk and Mancini assisted on the play.
The Jacks notched two more goals in the second period as Kyle Roberts scored his second goal of the year and Hebel got his fifth point and second goal of the weekend. Hebel now has five goals and 10 assists on the season in 10 games.
Notching assists on the plays were Ethan Hicks, Ross and Loucks.
The Jacks added two more goals in the final frame to close out their victory. The first came from Mancini, who took a pass from Volk and found the back of the net.
Lindholm scored the final marker for DCB with 8:15 remaining as he took assists from Roberts and Spencer Archer and took put it past Haugan.
Again the Jacks had a huge advantage on shots as they had 46 to SDSU’s 18.
DCB took advantage of an understaffed Jackrabbits squad, who suited only 10 guys on Friday and nine on Saturday.
“SDSU was shorthanded on the weekend and worked hard and got a big weekend out of their goalie,” Rybchinski stated. “These were tough games to play sometimes but we did what we needed to do and got two wins.”
The pair of wins could not have come at a better time for DCB’s confidence as they have to travel to Williston tonight to take on the rival Williston State College Tetons.
“The whole team is happy and hopefully we can carry this into our game on Tuesday against our rivals Williston,” Loucks said. “We’re expecting a lot of hard work and they have an Olympic ice sheet, so we’ll have to get used to that, and hopefully everybody comes ready to play and we’ll give them a good game.”
This will be only the fourth away game for the Jacks in 11 games, but that should not be a problem according to Loucks.
“I think we can manage it, because it’s only a couple hours,” Loucks said. “Hopefully we’ll keep good attitudes on the bus and head out to Williston and get another win.”
The weekend sweep of the Jackrabbits puts DCB at 3-7-1 and is their third win in four games.