Sports
Jacks bested by alumni
Tyler Ohmann
12/17/2013
It was an 0-for-3 week for the Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) Lumberjacks as they played two of the best American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) teams in the country.
The Jacks fell 6-1 to 2013 ACHA National Champion Minot State last Tuesday night in the Lumberdome. They then were swept with 5-1 and 7-1 losses to sixth-ranked Iowa State in Ames, Iowa this past weekend.
Last Tuesday the Jacks hosted the Beavers and honored the ex-Lumberjacks that helped Minot State capture the ACHA National Title last season.
The Beavers did not hold anything back against the Jacks as they opened a 4-0 lead late into the second period.
DCB sophomore Lucas Lindholm broke the silence for the Jacks as he scored with less than two minutes left in the second frame.
The Beavers weren’t done as they found the back of the net twice more in the final period to win 6-1.
The Beavers out shot the Jacks 34-19 as Will McClean stopped 18 shots for Minot and Ryan Miner stopped 28-of-34 Beavers shots.
The Jacks then hit the road on a more than 700 mile trip to Ames, Iowa to take on ex-Lumberjack Seth Serhienko and the Iowa State Cyclones.
On Friday the No. 6 ACHA team in the nation used a 45-26 shot advantage to take down the Jacks 5-1.
The Cyclones scored three first-period goals to set the tone and added another pair of goals in the final frame to seal the victory.
“We played really well but had a few mistakes in the first period but we came back after that and I thought we played our best game of the season, minus those goals in the first period,” stated Jacks head coach Travis Rybchinski.
They did allow the Jacks to get one goal on the power play as Matt Mehlhaff found the back of the net late in the third period. Ethan Hicks earned the assist on the play.
Serhienko had an assist on a third-period goal for the Cyclones by Antti Helanto.
Ryan Miner had 40 save for the Jacks in the losing effort, while Cyclones goalie Scott Ismond stopped 25-of-26 shots to improve his season goals against average to .943.
On Saturday it looked better for the Jacks early on as they were able to take the advantage early as freshman Brett Hebel notched an unassisted marker at 11:09 of the first period to give DCB the lead.
The Cyclones got a goal from Mark Huber to tie the game before the period ended and Iowa State never looked back from their running to a 7-1 win.
“We had a few long shifts in a row in the second period and it caught up to us and they scored two goals that we should have defended,” Rybchinski stated.
Serhienko assisted on a J.P. Kascsak goal in the third period, and then found the back of the net himself late in the final frame to give him a three-point weekend in the sweep of his former team.
Miner stopped 29-of-36 shots, including 21-of-24 in the first two periods in the losing effort.
“We still have too many guys who are not buying in to what we are doing for 60 minutes,” Rybchinski stated. “We seem to take a shift off here and there and then it ends up in the back of our net.”
DCB did not score a single goal in their games against those two teams last season.
The Jacks dropped to 3-12 with the losses. They open up the second half of their season with a pair of home games on Jan. 11-12 against the Maple Grove Energy, a Minnesota Junior Hockey League team.
Notes:
- Serhienko has played in 15 games for the Cyclones and has scored two goals and notched four assists in his play this season.
- With the goal on Saturday Hebel became the Jacks’ leading scorer this season with 15 points. He has six goals and nine assists in 14 games.