Lafontaine shutout leads Jets to win column

The Janesville Jets wrapped up a weekend split with the visiting Kenai River Black Bears as goaltender, Jack LaFontaine earned the shutout in a 2-0 win for the home side at Janesville Ice Arena Saturday (Sept. 19.

Other Midwest-based games on the same day saw Bismarck gaining a season opening sweep against defending Robertson Cup finalists, Austin Bruins with a 3-0 shutout, Brookings took a weekend sweep on home ice against the Minot Minotauros with a 3-2 overtime edge and the defending Robertson Cup champion Minnesota Wilderness saw home ice as no advantage at all, falling for the second night in a row to the Fairbanks Ice Dogs who have already put together a 4-0 record.

Brown Bears 0 at Jets 2 

Lafontaine handled all of the 15 Kenai River shots to nail down the shutout win for Janesville with goals coming from Swedish imports  Martin Sundberg, 18 Sweden and Nils Rygaard 20.

Brian Baker, 20, from Pennsylvania was the busiest man on the ice stopping 36 of 37 Jets shots before racing to the  bench in the final minute, setting the stage for a game-clinching empty net goal.

Bruins 0 at Bobcats 3 

Another home side used some stellar play between the pipes on its way to a win as Hunter Shepard, 19, from Cowhasset, MN turned aside all of the 23 shots he faced to nail down a shutout in goal at the VFW Sports Center in Bismarck.

The host Bobcats scored once in each period, Jared Pike, 19, from Utah scoring in the opening frame and Tyse Teague 18, from California adding another in the second before Willie Brown, 19, from St. Paul MN buried the final one into an empty net with 32 seconds to go.

Austin Smith, 18, from Orland Park IL stopped 28 of 30 in goal for the Bruins.

Minotauros 2 at Blizzard 3  (ot)

TJ Samec, 20 from St. Paul, MN was the hero of this one sinking the overtime winner for the host Blizzard just 30 seconds away from the overtime segment as the Blizzard earned a weekend sweep on home ice.

Teams were even after each period, both scoreless in the first and both picking up one in the final two frames.

Brett Callahan 16, from Westmont IL scored the third period goal and collected an assist on the earlier goal, by Garrett Elmore, 19. from Tennessee.

Chase Springman, 19 from Zimmerman MN and Johnny Walker, 19, from Phoenix scored the Minotauro goals and Christian Mohs, 20 from Andover MN picked up assists on both of them.

Eric Hancock, 20 from North Royalton OH picked up the win in goal for the Blizzard turning aside 28 shots and Lucas Murray, 19, from Virginia, MN stopped 34 in goal for the Minotauros.

Ice Dogs 5 at Wilderness 1 

The Ice Dogs boosted its record to 4-0 on the young season while the Wilderness fell to 0-2 in its first weekend set but this one was closer than it appears.

Teams played through a scoreless first period and both scored once in the second, the Ice Dogs adding on four in the third to put this one in the books.

Jacob Hamacher, 18, from California scored the lone Wilderness goal and it was Logan Coomes, 19, from Northville, MI leading the way for the Alaska squad, firing three goals.

Todd Burgess, 19, from Arizona and Jakob Stridsberg, 20, from Sweden scored the other Ice Dogs goals while CJ Booth, 17, from Florida stopped 28 shots to pick up the win in goal.