Gamblers down Caps in Subway opener

The host Green Bay Gamblers opened play in the Subway Shootout with a 4-1 over Wisconsin rival Madison Capitols. The win came in the lone game scheduled for the first day of the seven-team event.

Both teams scored one in the opening period, in fact the Capitols opened the scoring as Alexandre Payusov, an 18-year-old winger from Quebec who played last season with the Sioux City Musketeers fired one home 5:15 into the match.

The lead was short-lived though as Jack Poehling, 19, from Lakeville, MN scored the equalizer about seven minutes later for the Gamblers.

Joey Marooney, 19, from Eden Prairie, MN scored the game winner  on a powerplay with 6:14 to go in the second and Jared Spooner, 19 from Bismarck, ND took over from there scoring an insurance goal before the end of the second, then adding another in the final period

There were some other pre-season matches that were not part of the tournament. Listed below is a quick summary of each of those.

Stampede 1 at Musketeers 5

One in the first and two more in the second had the host Sioux City Musketeers up 3-0 heading to the third at the Vernon Arena.

Shane Kuzmeski, 19, from Grayslake, IL,  scored the lone Sioux Falls Stamped goal 7:52 into the final period but the Musketeers added two more before the final buzzer.

Eeli Tolvanen, 16, from Finland scored two in the game for the Musketeers with others coming from Christian Meike, 19 from Virginia, Matt Steeves, 17, from New Hampshire and Evan Wisocky, 17, from New Jersey.

Cameron Gornet, a 19 year old goaltender from St. Louis, MO stopped 25 of 26 shots to grab the win in goal while Ales Stezka, 18 from Czechoslolvakia stopped 32 of 37 at the other end.

Fighting Saints 3  at Blackhawks 1

In Waterloo, the Dubuque Fighting Saints came out on top but it wasn’t settled until Nathan Sucese, 19, from New York sank the clincher into an empty Waterloo goal with 18 seconds to play.

All three of three of the other goals came in the middle period as Petter Makitalo, 18 from Sweden and Casey Johnson, a 19-year-old defenseman from Grand Forks, ND scored for the Saints and Michael Davies, 18 from St. Louis responded with the lone goal for the Blackhawks.

Hunter Miska, the Fighting Saints’ 20-year-old goaltender from North Branch, MN stopped 26 of the 27 shots he faced to pick up the win while Cale Morris, 19, from Colorado stopped 15 of 17 tough shots in goal for the Hawks.

Storm 3 at Stars 2 

Dan Labosky, a 20-year-old product of Edina, MN sank his second of the game 5:10 into the overtime period to lift the Tri-City Storm to a 3-2 win at Lincoln’s Ice Box for a 3-2 win against the host Stars.

Both teams scored once in the first and second periods, then struggled as goaltenders shut the door down the stretch.

Austen Long, a 17-year-old native of Blaine, MN had the other Storm goal with Carson Gicewicz, 18, from New York and Ludvig Hoff, 18 from Norway countered with the Stars’ goals.

Matthew Greenfield, 20, from Florida stopped 25 of 27 shots to grab the win for the Storm while Cayden Primeau, 16, from New Jersey and Patrick Virtanen, 20, from Finland, split the work in goal for the Stars, combining to stop 31 of 24 Storm shots.

Red Bull 2 at Force 4 

The Red Bull team from Salzburg, Austria will be taking part in one of the Regional tournaments next weekend but got an early preview with an exhibition game at Fargo.

The Force grabbed a 2-0 lead in the opening period but Red Bull struck back with the lone middle period goal and then tied it just before the five minute mark of the final period.

Christian Cakebread, 18 from Arizona scored the game winner with 6:45 to play and Reid Murphy, 19, from Ontario added a clincher just 21 seconds later.

Collin Appleton, an 18-year-old from Green Bay, WI and Jake McLaughlin, a 19-year-old from Hinsdale, IL had the first period goals for the Force.

Christoph Koemer and Michal Juscak, 18 from Slovakia,  had he goals for Red Bull.

Blake Weyrick, 19 from California and Robbie Beydoun, an 18-year-old keeper from Plymouth, MI, split the work in goal for the Force, combining to stop 31 of 33 shots faced. Woulter Peeters was in goal for Salzburg.