Sports

Jacks close regular season, prepare for series against Tetons

By Tyler Ohmann

02/04/2014

After a long trip to the upper peninsula of Michigan, the Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) hockey team had to hit the ice against Finlandia JV.

The Jacks and Lions skated to a 3-3 tie on Friday evening. On Saturday the Jacks struggled and fell 5-1 to the Lions JV team.

On Friday the Jacks played strong in the first period as they opened up a 2-0 lead.

Rugby native and former Bottineau-Rugby star Kyle Volk scored at 4:44 of the first period to put the Jacks up 1-0. Ethan Hicks and Cody Bronson earned assists on the play.

At 11:10 of the first DCB went up 2-0 on Danny Hosmer’s first collegiate goal. The Jacks forward used an assist from Cody Anderson to score the goal.

Matt Parker then took over to pull the Lions back into the game, and eventually into the lead.

Parker scored goals in both the second and third periods, and assisted on another goal to push the Lions into a 3-2 lead.

CJ Westlake scored his first collegiate goal on an unassisted marker with less than 90 seconds left to procure a tie.

“I thought we came out hard and dominated the first period and then Finlandia came out and played much better and clawed their way back into it,” stated Jacks head coach Travis Rybchinski. “We scored a late one to salvage a tie.”

Ryan Miner stopped 36-of-39 shots in net in the tie game as the Jacks were narrowly out shot 39-35.

On Saturday it did not go nearly as well for the Jacks who fell 5-1 to the Lions, and were never really in the game after the first period.

“I do not think we came ready to play,” Rybchinski stated. “Our meetings and game plan was a good one but guys seemed to want to do their own thing and we really did not get things rolling.”

After falling behind 1-0, James Kelly scored a goal to tie the game on a power play marker. Brett Hebel and Reed Loucks assisted on the goal.

Frank Zumer and Lenio Heinonen both scored two goals to help Finlandia JV win the game.

Christian Vivian stopped 27-of-32 shots in net for the Jacks.

“We took too many poor penalties and we never really played our game, it was individuals games out there,” Rybchinski stated. “I have not seen a team like ours in many years who gets along off the ice but there seems to be a disconnect on the ice.”

“We need to do a better job of our leaders and best players stepping up and leading this team,” Rybchinski stated.

Perhaps the best thing that the Jacks did as a team was stop to help a stranded motorist on the way home on Highway 2.

The weekend series, which dropped the Jacks to 5-17-4 on the season overall to close out the regular season.

The playoffs begin on Wednesday when they play in Williston against the Williston State Tetons in the first game of a best-of-three series with the Tetons.

Game two will be in Bottineau on Tuesday, Feb. 11.  

 “Williston will be tough, but we will work hard and try to gain that birth to New York,” Rybchinski stated. “It would be great to see a good crowd at the Lumberdome on Tuesday when we play them at home.”

The winner of the series heads to New York to play in the National Tournament.