Lakers put up eight in big home win

Several teams racked up high scores on the second night of United States Premier Hockey League Midwest Division play on Saturday (Sept. 12).

The Forest Lake Lakers hit eight on the scoreboard in an 8-4 win on home ice against the Steele County Blades while the Chicago Cougars wrapped up an awesome opening weekend on the road with its second shutout of the weekend, 8-0 against the Michigan Wild.

The Dells Ducks also won big on the road with a 6-2 margin against the host Illiana Blackbirds and Motor City Hawks swept its two-game homestand with Marquette, winning 5-3.

Traverse City Hounds meanwhile turned the tables on the host Tri-City Icehawks, grabbing a 2-0 shutout and the St. Croix Valley Magicians grabbed its second win of the weekend with a 3-2 edge at Blaine against the Energy.

Lakers 8 Blades 4 

Zachary Remers, a ’95 from Florida, notched his first of four goals 4:11 into this one and the Forest Lake Lakers never looked back on its way to an 8-4 doubling of the host Steele County Blades.

The Blades notched its first goal just 8:32 into the contest, but by then the Lakers had already piled up three of its own, but the Blades did cut into that lead a bit, trailing 4-3 at the end of a wild opening period.

Anton Minaev, a ’96 from Russia doubled the margin in the opening minute of the second period and by the time teams entered the third, the Lakers owned a 6-4 cushion. Two more down the homestretch put this one away.

Remers ended up with four goals and an assist but the offensive leader in this one was Brian Miller, a ’96 from New Jersey who piled up six assists in the game.

Minaev scored twice and the others came from Dan Peterson, a ’97 from Mora, MN and Caleb Santa Maria, a ’96 from Georgia.

Chase Lewis, a ’96 from North Carolina picked up a goal and assist in a losing effort with other Blades’ goals scored by Clayton Huss, a ’96 from Pleasant Hill, IA; Wilson Anderle, a ’95 from Hanover, MN and Drew Gustavson, a ’97 from Winona, MN.

The Lakers will be looking to extend their streak when they play host to Blaine on Friday (Sept. 18) while the Blades will be at St. Croix Valley on the same night, looking to break its two game slump.

Cougars 8 Wild 0

When the newly formed Chicago Cougars racked up a 7-0 shutout in its opener, it seemed doubtful the team would hit seven again on the second night. The team instead went right past that total to an 8-0 win and a 15-0 opening weekend — not too shabby.

In the second game at the Farmington Hills Ice Arena, the Cougs scored twice in the opening frame, then added three more in both the middle and final sessions.

Leading the charge for the Cats was Andrew Van Dyke, a ’96 from Elmhurst, IL with a hat trick while Cody Hrabak, a ’97 from Palos Hills, IL picked up a goal and two helpers.

Gavin Nickerson, a ’95 from Oregon scored twice and Jonathan Dagnal, a ’96 from Pittsburgh, set up a pair. Other goals came from Mike Watson, a ’96 from Colorado and Jesper Lonnberg, a ’95 from Sweden.

Dylan Gillis, a ’97 from Naperville, IL  patrolled the crease for the Cougars, stopping all 25 of the shots he faced while at the other end of the ice, Dean Bucholz, a ’99 from Dearborn Heights, MI did all he could for his team, the lopsided score put up despite a 51 save effort on his part.

The Cougars will go back into action Friday, facing another 2-0 team in Wisconsin Dells, while the Wild tries to hit the win column for the first time when it hits the road to play the Motor City Hawks.

Marquette Royales 3 at Motor City Hawks 5

For a second straight night on home ice, the Motor City Hawks pulled out a 5-3 win over the visiting Marquette Royales at the McCann Arena.

Teams were even at 2-2 after a period and the Hawks added one in the second, then held a 2-1 margin through the final frame.

Justin Session, a ’96 from Detroit and Milan Ristovski, a ’97 from Washington Township, MI both picked up a goal and assist in the game with other goals coming from Connor O’Doherty, a ’96 from Brighton, MI; Houston Peach, a ’99 from Bloomfield Hills, MI and Bryce Peplinski, a ’95 from Sandusky, MI.

Christian Leeb, a ’97 from Brook Park, MN; Kris Maxon, a ’95 from Munising, MI and Austin Renn, a ’97 from Racine, MN counted a goal each for the Royales.

The Hawks will be back in action on Friday (Sept. 18), staying on home ice to play the Michigan Wild and the Royales will make the trip to Wisconsin Rapids to play the Riverkings at the South Wood County Recreation Center.

Hounds 2 Icehawks 0

After dropping the Friday night contest at Bay City, the Hounds regrouped and collected a 2-0 shutout win a Bay County Civic Arena 24 hours later as Justin Abdelhak, a ’95 from Lapeer, MI stopped all 28 shots he faced to nail down the shutout.

Kyle Bollers, a ’99 from Ontario sniped both of the Hounds’ goals in the first eight minutes of the contest.

Cody Foster, a ’95 from California also made 28 stops in the game for he Icehawks.

The Hounds will be off for the upcoming weekend and hit the road again to play at Alpena Sept. 25.

The Icehawks will play host to the Michigan Wild on Saturday (Sept. 19.

Magicians 3 Energy 2 (ot)

For a second straight night, the St. Croix Valley Magicians pulled off an overtime win, this time it was Curtis Hansen, a ’98 from Prior Lake, MN pulling the trigger in the extra period at the Fogerty Ice Center in Blaine, against the Energy who fell to 0-1-1-0 with the loss.

Sean Stefaniak, a ’97 from Lakeville, MN had a goal and assist in the game for the Magicians with the other goal scored by veteran, ’95, Peter Karavos from Rolling Meadows, IL.

Nick Fellows, a ’96 from Waunakee, WI stopped 26 of 28 to grab the win, but Blair Sanders from Kansas City, MO turned in an amazing 53 save effort only to see it vanish in overtime at the opposite end.

The Magicians will look to continue its season-opening string when it hosts the Blades on Friday (Sept. 18) and the Energy will make the trip to Forest Lake on the same night.

Ducks 6 Blackbirds 2 

The defending Minnesota Junior Hockey League champs, the Dells Ducks wrapped up a weekend sweep on the road with a 6-2 win at the Midwest Training and Ice Center at Dyer, IN.

Blackbirds actually hit the board first, Jacob Maynard, a ’98 from Saint John, IN notching the first goal of his team’s season at the 8:59 mark.

The only other goal for the hosts came with three minutes to play, Austin Ahlers, a ’95 from Lake of the Hills, IL pounding one in from near the blue line.

In between were six Ducks goals; one in the first to even things and then three unanswered middle period goals to take control. Two more in the third made it a lopsided edge before the Blackbirds closed out the scroing.

Sherman Mowery, a ’96 from Kentwood, MI picked up a hat trick and added an assist in the win while Artem Nekrasov, a ’96 from Moscow added two goals and a helper. David Kaplan, a ’97 from Chicago scored the other Ducks’ goal and Lucas Smith, a ’96 from Calgary, AB, set up a pair.

Tyler Arneson, a ’96 from Reedsburg, WI collected the win in goal, stopping 26 of 28 shots in the Ducks’s net.

The Ducks will play its home opener Friday, putting its 2-0 record against the Cougars, also 2-0 so far. The Black birds meanwhile will look to get off the shnide against the Detroit Fighting Irish at Brownstone Sports Center near Motown.