Sports

Jacks drop three to Beavers, Bison

By Tyler Ohmann

01/21/2014

The Lumberjack hockey team of Dakota College at Bottineau just can’t seem to get it going. The Jacks were swept this past week, losing three games, once at home and twice on the road.
DCB lost 6-0 to Minot State in the Lumberdome last Tuesday.

Then over the weekend the Jacks were swept by the North Dakota State (NDSU) Bison.

On Tuesday the Jacks were just out matched as the 2013 National Champion Beavers won 6-0.

“I do not think the score indicated on how the game went,” stated Jacks head coach Travis Rybchinksi. “We battled and played hard throughout the game. Minot had better players, they were very disciplined, and they are very experienced.”

“That is why they are Champions. I hope we learned from our game tonight,” Rybchinski added.

Logan Herauf had a pair of goals and the Beavers scored twice on power plays. DCB had 12 minor penalties, while the Beavers had five.

Ryan Miner stopped 28 shots as the Beavers out shot the Jacks 34-14.

A hat trick from Aaron Rasmusson nearly won the Jacks a game on the road last Friday, but DCB couldn’t hold on to a late lead, and then fell in a shootout to the NDSU Bison.

The game counts as a tie in the official standings.

The Jacks fell behind in the first period as Tyler Jokinen scored on the power play for the Bison.

NDSU went up 2-0 before the Rasmusson found the net for the first time for DCB. It was an unassisted, shorthanded goal.

James Kelly tied the game with less than a minute left in the second period on a pass from Danny Hosmer.

The Jacks would fall behind early in the third period as the Bison scored twice more to go up 4-2.

Then Rasmusson kicked it into gear.

He scored once at 8:17 on a pass from Casey Barile.
Then with less than a minute left Rasmusson put it past Bison goalie Alex Cimochowski to force overtime. Kelly and Barile earned helpers on the play.

A shootout would determine the winner, and it was the Bison who rose triumphant.

DCB out shot NDSU 41-24.

“In order for us to have success we need our best players to be the best players night in and night out and on a consistent basis,” Rybchinski said. “We also have to work harder. Sometimes I think our work ethic is not there.”

On Saturday it got worse for the Jacks as they fell behind 5-0 by giving up two goals in the first, one in the second and two more to start the third period.

It finally snapped in for the Jacks at 7:35 in the third when Connor Hicks scored a goal. Lucas Lindholm assisted on the play.

DCB scored again less than 30 seconds later as Cody Bronson found the back of the net on a pass from Brett Hebel.

Hebel later scored with 12 seconds left to draw the Jacks within two, but it was too little too late, and they fell 5-3.

This time it was the Bison with the shot advantage 44-32. Ryan Miner made 39 saves for DCB.

“We deserved to win on Friday night and deserved to lose on Saturday,” Rybchinski stated. “It was a hard game on Saturday as we waited all day after the late game on Friday and we just did not have energy.”

“I think with us playing our fifth game in eight days did not help any either as guys did not have that jump,” Rybchinski added.

DCB, who is 5-13-2 on the season, is slated to play rival Williston State at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the Lumberdome. It is the final time the teams will meet before the first game of their three-game series to see who advances to nationals, which begins on Feb. 5 in Williston.

If they want to win that, Rybchinski thinks they have to add some more consistency.

“To win games we need 60 minutes and we are not getting 60 minutes,” Rybchinski stated. “We need everyone on the same page for 60 minutes.”

DCB also hosts St. Johns University for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday. The game starts at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday.