Sports

Controversial goal helps dash Bottineau-Rugby state hopes

By Tyler Ohmann

02/18/2014

A controversial goal in the battle of the Braves sent the Mandan Braves to state, and the Bottineau-Rugby (BR) Braves home.

The third period marker by Mandan’s Garret Murphy at 2:43 in the third period tied the game at four, but there was no early indication that the goal was in.

Murphy’s shot hit the cross bar, and was quickly shuffled back out of the crease, and the goal judge never lit the lamp. However, an official whistled, and determined that the puck did make it past the line, and was a goal.

“They (the refs) said it was in, but I thought I had a pretty good look at it from where I was at the bench, and I thought it was just cross bar and down, not in the net,” said Braves head coach David Hoff. “But, it’s not my decision.”

BR tried to recover after Colton Murphy put Mandan ahead five minutes later. They even put out a super line in the games waning minutes to try and tie the game, but they were unable to get anything past Mandan netminder Sawyer Schmidt in the final period, sending Bottineau home for the third time in four years.

“First of all it always gets tighter in the region, because everyone is get things better from during the year,” Hoff said. “Today, I thought it was going to be a tight game, and I thought our legs were heavy, but they were playing their third game too, and they’re a little deeper.”

“But they made one more play than we did,” Hoff added.

The game started just as dismally for BR as neither team was able to capitalize on chances in the first period, which ended in a 0-0 tie. It began better for Mandan in the second, as Colton Murphy struck first blood as well at 3:17.

BR senior Cody Bedlion answered back less than a minute later to tie the game with an unassisted backhand shot, but Mandan would swing the advantage once more.

Trever Leingang and Jared Walters would score twice to put Mandan up 3-1 with tallies within a minute of each other.

For the next five minutes BR tried to play catch up, and finally junior Luke Amsbaugh stepped up to the task.

Amsbaugh tallied the first of three goals in a less than five minute span at 11:24. Harrison Aide and Andrew Hill assisted. At 12:20 Amsbaugh tied the game, with another shot from the right side that he lifted over Schmidt. Aide again assisted.

Lastly, Amsbaugh earned his hat trick, and gave BR the lead at 15:59, as he used a nice pass from Austyn Lorenz to stick home the goal.

However, Garret Murphy would score the controversial goal in the third period to tie the game, and Colton Murhpy would hit the game-winner at 8:18.  Leingang assisted on both the tying, and game-winning goals, and had three helpers in the game.

BR out shot Mandan narrowly, 32-29. Senior goalie Riley Monson played his final game by making 24 saves.

“Today we were hoping to scrounge another one out, but unfortunately we couldn’t win it,” Hoff said.

To get to that point, BR opened their tournament with a 4-1 victory over Jamestown, a team they lost to 7-3 just last weekend, to drop them from a potential third seed to a fourth seed.

Neither team was able to get rolling last Friday in the West Region Tournament’s opening round.

Finally after more than 14 minutes of no scoring. Aide was able to find the net on an unassisted goal to put the Braves up 1-0.

Once again, neither team was able to find the back of the net in the second period.

However, BR was able to find a way to score in the final frame, as Aide found the net twice more, once with an assist from fellow senior Nigel Hageness, and another unassisted marker.

Aide would assist on an Amsbaugh goal as well in the period to push the Braves to a 4-1 victory.

Jamestown’s Nick Stockert would score their lone goal of the game between the Amsbaugh goal, and Aide’s final goal.

“This whole tournament we just had trouble getting rolling a little bit, but in the first round we were able to scrounge one out,” Hoff said. “It gave us a chance to play on the third day with a win and you’ll be in the state tournament.”

Monson had a strong game, stopping 37-of-38 Blue Jays shots.
BR’s scoring woes continued in the semifinal game against eventual champion Bismarck High.

The Demons scored four times in the second period to help them earn a 6-1 victory, and a berth in the West Region Championship game.

Shots on net did not come very often for the Braves in the contest, and their lone score came at 6:53 of the third period, when Amsbaugh scored. Shawn Schaan, a freshman, recorded the assist on the play.

Six different Demons scored on the evening to help earn the victory thanks to a 50-15 advantage in shots.

Monson stopped 44 shots for the Braves in the loss.

Overall, Hoff thinks that tightening defenses, and the pressure of the tournament limited BR’s scoring.

“I think it just comes down that it’s region tournament time, and it gets a little tougher with scoring,” Hoff said. “We obviously rely on a few guys to carry the load scoring, and everyone tightens up defensively then they do in the regular season.”

Hoff also gave a lot of credit to the teams that they played this weekend.

“We saw teams that played well against us, and you’ve got to tip your hat to them as well,” Hoff said.

BR concluded the season at 14-10 overall.

Notes:

•  The Braves had three players named to the All-Region team, Aide, Amsbaugh and Hill. Aide was named Senior Athlete of the Year.
•  The final tally for Aide this season was 52 goals and 42 assists, for 92 points in 24 games played. For his career he finished with 311 career points in five varsity seasons.
•  Amsbaugh finished right behind him with 85 points (47 goals, 38 assists). Third place is Quinn Fuchs with 63 points.
•  Hill was fourth in defensemen in the state in scoring with 21 points (six goals, 15 assists)
•  Grant is currently in eighth with 43 points (10 goals, 33 assists)