Sports
Jacks split home series
Tyler Ohmann
01/14/2014
After nearly a month away from the ice the Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) men’s hockey team returned to the ice this past weekend with a series against the Maple Grove Energy.
The Lumberjacks split the games against the Minnesota Junior Hockey League (MNJHL) team by beating the Energy 3-2 on Saturday night, but falling 6-2 to them on Sunday afternoon.
On Saturday the Jacks hopped out to an early lead that led to a 3-2 win.
A pair of Aaron Rasmusson goals in the opening frame put DCB up 2-0 early on. Sophomore Reed Loucks earned helpers on both goals, while James Kelly and Casey Barile had an assist apiece.
After Maple Grove cut the lead to 2-1 early in the third period the Jacks answered back with eventual game-winning marker from Alex Herman. Kyle Volk and Drew Ross had assists on the goal.
The Energy added another goal with an extra attacker with 13 seconds left in the game, but the Jacks closed it out to earn their fifth win of the season.
Ryan Miner was the goaltender of record for the Jacks as he stopped 27-of-29 shot attempts by the Energy.
“I thought Saturday went pretty decent, and it felt good to get that win coming off of break,” said Jacks head coach Travis Rybchinski. “I thought we worked fairly hard at times, but we still need to put 60 minutes together, so that’s disappointing, but for the first game back it was OK.”
Things looked to be shaping up the same to start the game on Sunday as the Jacks again took an early lead.
This time it was sophomore Matt Mehlhaff who found the back of the net in the opening period. Cody Anderson threaded the pass to Mehlhaff, who stuffed it past Maple Grove goalie Brian Anderson to put DCB up 1-0.
The first period ended that way, but the Energy turned the game around in the second.
That’s because they scored five times in the period against DCB goaltender Christian Vivian, who was making his second start of the season.
Vivian stopped all 10 shots in the first period, but could only stop 10-of-15 in the second period, as a couple were on odd man rushes, and plays that the Jacks defense was late getting there.
The Jacks cut the lead to 5-2 in the third period on an Ethan Hicks’ goal. Hicks took passes from Ross and Volk right as a penalty expired and fit a tough angled shot from the side of the net in between the goalie and the pipe to score.
Ryan Miner allowed one goal in 16 shot attempts in the final frame, but the Jacks couldn’t score anymore and fell 6-2.
Maple Grove is currently in second place in the Minnesota division of the MNJHL, but that doesn’t mean that Rybchinski wasn’t unhappy about Sunday’s performance.
“It was inconsistent and I didn’t think we played with a lot of heart or emotion,” Rybchinski said. “I don’t know what it was, but maybe guys thought, ‘oh, we won yesterday, we’re going to win today,’ and that’s not a part of it.”
DCB (5-12) open up a tough part of their schedule at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Lumberdome as they host the Minot State Beavers.
The Jacks then travel to Fargo to take on North Dakota State University in a pair of games. They’ll return home next Tuesday to host Williston State College.
DCB is 0-4 against those three teams so far this season, and Rybchinski thinks that the Jacks need their leaders to step up if they hope to change that.
“We need our best players to be our best players and our hardest workers, and we’re not getting that right now,” Rybchinski said. “Until we get that I don’t think we’re going anywhere.”
The game against the Beavers will feature players and coaches that were formerly Lumberjacks.