Jets and Whalers get a jump on second round

As usual, the junior hockey scene is much quieter on weeknights, but two of the five NA3HL Divisions got a jump on their respective Best-of-Three Championship series this week.

NA3HL

Metro Jets 6 Pittsburgh Vengeance 5 (ot)

Matt Dempsey’s wrister 8:38 into overtime gave the host Jets the upper hand in its series with the Vengeance, bringing a sudden end to a high scoring, back and forth battle.

In particular the overtime segment appeared to see chances back and forth, but the Jets were able to convert five of them into shots on goal before Dempsey buried the sixth.

The Jets held a 12-5 edge in shots through the opening segment and it showed up with a 2-1 edge on the scoreboard as well. Alex Holm and Graham Day sandwiched a goal by Devin Sroka of the Vengeance to give the home team a cushion after the opening segment.

It didn’t hold up though, Pittsburgh pulling even with a penalty shot goal scored by Bryan Hovanec just past the eight minute mark and then grabbing its first lead when Eli Lynn found the mark four minutes later.

Pearce Vance scored to get the Jets even with just under five minutes to play in the period and teams entered the third period even at 3-3.

Nils Markgren’s goal 3:11 in had the Vengeance in front again, but the lead lasted just eight seconds before Ryan Bloom scored his first of two consecutive for the Jets. The other came at the 6:35 mark and stood up until Adem Arifi pulled Pittsburgh even again with 4:49 to go, setting up the overtime period.

Pittsburgh will host the second game tonight (Friday, March 13) with its back to the wall and looking to force a third and deciding game back in the Detroit area on Sunday.

West Michigan Wolves 2 Wisconsin Whalers 3

Teams traded single goals through the first and second periods at Hartmeyer Arena in Madison Thursday, but Will Holtan’s second of the game on a powerplay 4:20 into the final period put the Whalers in front to stay.

Both teams busted out of the gate, the Wolves grabbing a lead just 78 seconds into the match and the Whalers pulling even just 82 seconds after that.

The 1-1 lead held until the second when Holtan briefly gave the Whalers its first lead of the night before Devin Farkas responded for the Wolves.

Teams combined to fire 35 shots in the first period– 21 for the Whalers.

Chris Johansen picked up the win in goal for the Whalers with 35 saves and Hunter Vorva turned aside 42 before dashing to the bench in favor of an extra attacker for West Michigan with 1:25 to go.

Teams will meet again back in Battle Creek on Saturday afternoon and if needed, a third game will also be played in Michigan on Sunday afternoon.

The other series were all scheduled to begin Friday including a Western Division clash in Mason City as the North Iowa Bulls hosted the Granite City Lumberjacks in the opening of their Best-of-Three Set.

Other non-Midwest Division series see Texas Brahmas going up against the Nashville Jr. Predators and the Great Falls Americans meeting Helena Bighorns.

All five divisional champions along with one other team will take part in the Silver Cup Championship tournament next weekend at Geneva, IL.

MnJHL

There were no midweek games in this league which is down to its ‘Final Four’ weekend which sees division crossover matches.

The Dells Ducks, top seed from the Minnesota Division will host the Wooster Oilers who finished the season ranked third in the Central Division for either two or three weekend matches at the Poppy Waterman Ice Arena in Lake Delton, WI — Friday and Saturday nights and if needed, Sunday afternoon.

The Ducks advanced to third round with an opening series win against the Ironwood Fighting Yoopers, then handled the Forest Lake Lakers in the second round.

The Oilers took out the Tri-City Icehawks in its first round match up then picked up an upset win against the second seeded Wisconsin Rapids Riverkings last weekend.

The other Final Four Round will see the Illiana Blackbirds, top seed from the Central meeting the Minnesota Division’s second seed, the Rochester Ice Hawks.

Game one will be Friday at the Midwest Training and Ice Center in Dyer, Indiana with Game two going Saturday at the Rochester Rec Center Saturday night. If needed, the teams will travel back to Dyer for a deciding game on Sunday afternoon.

The Ice Hawks advanced past the Minnesota Owls in the first round, then eliminated the Hudson Crusaders last weekend. The Blackbirds opened the post season against the St. Louis Frontenacs then drew a bye through the second round of Central Division playoffs.

There have been 10 series played in the MnJHL post season so far and all of them have ended in two-game sweeps.

MWJHL

The Midwest Junior Hockey League wrapped up its regular season last weekend and six of the seven teams move into their Quarter-final playoff series this weekend.

Excluded will by the Traverse City Hounds who finished on top of the standings in the regular season.

Second seeded Motor City Monarchs will host the sixth place Michigan Ice Dogs while third place Decatur Blaze entertains the sixth place Soo Firehawks and the fifth seeded Alpena Flyers will make the trip to Detroit to play the fourth place Fighting Irish.

High seed will host the entire series and all three are Best-of-Three sets with games scheduled for Friday, Saturday and, if needed, Sunday.

USHL

Tri-City Storm 6 Lincoln Stars 1

The Storm paid a visit to Lincoln on Tuesday night for a midweek West Division confrontation.

The Storm are currently locked in a battle with Sioux City for top spot in the Midwest while Lincoln sits at the bottom — any playoff hopes long distinguished.

But on Tuesday, the Stars held its own against the Storm — for a while.

Despite a 13-5 edge in shots for the visiting Storm in the first period it was the Stars up 1-0 heading to the second thanks to a goal by Ludvig Hoff.

The second period has not been friendly to the Stars though and this game proved no different as the Storm counted three unanswered goals, then put it away with another trio in the third period.

Matthew Freytag, Jake Wahlin, Garrett Gamez, Chris Wilkie, Tory Dello and Chase Berger had the Storm goals at the Icebox in Lincoln.

Fargo Force 2 Omaha Lancers 4

On Wednesday night, the third place Omaha Lancers stayed within four points of second place Tri-City with its doubling of the Force at the Ralston Arena in Omaha.

Both teams scored twice in the opening period and after a scoreless second, the Lancers put it away with a pair of unanswered third period markers.

Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson netted the game winner 3:44 into the final frame, but the game wasn’t settled until Steven Spinner sank his second of the game for the Lancers into an empty Force goal with just 32 seconds to go.

Matthew Meier had the other Lancers goal while Zach Yon and Jack Jenkins countered for the Force.

Zach Driscoll picked up the win in goal with a 28 save effort and Mathias Israelsson stopped 29 for the Force.

The USHL enters the final month of its long regular season with a full weekend slate of games and still plenty of teams in contention for playoff positions.

NAHL

Aberdeen Wings 4 Bismarck Bobcats 3 (so)

The lone midweek game involving Midwest clubs saw the visiting Aberdeen Wings take a shootout win at the VFW Sports Center Thursday night.

Luke Kania led the Wings to the win in goal, stopping 43 shots through the first 65 minutes, then adding five more stops to shutout the Bobcats in the shootout and making a fifth round score by Michael Soucier stand up as the game winner.

Wings were on the board just 88 seconds into the game with a goal for Bjorn Sigurdarson but the host Bobcats responded with goals from Oskars Batna and Willie Brown later in the frame and carried a 2-1 lead into the second period.

Aberdeen scored twice in the second, both off of the stick of Kyle Haak about five minutes apart and it was the guests leading the way into the final frame.

With goaltender Hunter Shepard on the bench, the Bobcats made the extra attacker pay off as Tanner Salsberry buried the equalizer just 32 seconds from the final buzzer.

NAHL teams will be back in action this weekend with three weeks to go in their 60-game regular season.