Magicians sweep Ice Dogs in NAHL playoffs opening set

The longest regular season ever finally ended and 16 North American Hockey League teams, including a half-zone Midwest-based teams kicked off the playoffs with mixed results.

Midwest Division

Home teams struggled out of the gate in the opening weekend here and that paid off for the Minnesota Magicians who make the long trek to Alaska and swept the host Fairbanks Ice Dogs in their Best of Five Division semi-final with three straight wins.

Meanwhile, the division leading Janesville Jets find themselves in a do-or-die situation now as the visiting Kenai River Brown Bears took a pair at the Janesville Ice Arena.

Magicians 6 @ Ice Dogs 3

In the first game at the Big Dipper Ice Arena on Friday (May 21), the visiting Magicians shocked the home side rallying back from a 2-0 deficit with three unanswered middle period goals and fired two more before the Ice Dogs finally managed to stop the streak with a goal 37 seconds from the final buzzer.

Brett Oberle (‘01/Woodbury, Minn.) scored twice, including the game winner for the Magicians with others added by Danny Eckerline (‘00/Orono, Minn.); Lucas Kanta (‘01/Grand Forks, N.D.); Jake Seitz (‘00/Mt. Iron, Minn.) and Lleyton Roed (‘02/Hugo, Minn.)

Magicians 7 @ Ice Dogs 2

The second game on Saturday was a carbon copy of the opener except the Magicians wiped out an early 2-0 deficit this time before the end of the first period. Four more unanswered in the second all but settled it and the Magicians scored its seventh straight early in the final period.

Jack Cronin (‘01/Hamilton, Mass.) fired a pair for the Magicians and Simon Falk (‘00/Varmdo, Sweden) sank the game winner with other goals for: Roed; Mason Hendrickson (‘01/Minnetonka, Minn.); Spencer Light (‘01/Stockton, Calif.) and Luc Laylin (‘01/St. Michael, Minn.). Andy Beran (‘00/St. Paul, Minn.) kicked out all but two of the Ice Dogs’ shots he faced in goal for the Magicians.

Magicians 3 @ Ice Dogs 2

After coming from behind, the Magicians went the opposite way in the clincher, scoring the lone goal of the first and adding two more in the first half of the middle period before Fairbanks finally managed one in the second and one more in the final frame.

Robert Christy (‘01/St. Paul, Minn.) put the Magicians up 3-0 in the second period with the goal that ultimately turned into the game winner. Other goals were added by Cronin and Trevor Kukkonen (‘01/Maple Grove, Minn.)

With the three-game sweep, the Magicians advance to the Midwest Division Finals against either the Kenai River Black Bears or the Janesville Jets.

Brown Bears 6 @ Jets 4

After scoring the lone goal of the opening period Friday night, the Bears carried a 5-1 cushion to the third and despite a late flurry by the home side, the gap was too wide to bridge.

Shane Ott (‘00/Centennial, Colo.) scored twice for the Jets with one each for Dominick Bartecko (‘03/St. Louis, Mo.) and Cade Destefani (‘01/Bedford, N.H.)

Morgan Winters (‘01/Osprey, Fla.) scored twice to pace the Bears and Brandon McNamara (‘00/Andover, Minn.) added the game winner with a little under five minutes to go in the second period.

Brown Bears 5 @ Jets 1

Nick Leyer (‘’00/St. Albert, Alta.) cut into a 2-0 Bears’ lead late in the first period but that was as close as the Jets could get, Brown Bears adding two more unanswered in the second and another down the stretch to collect a lopsided win despite a 45-35 edge in shots for the home team.

Luke Pacivich (‘02/Clarence Center, N.Y.) picked up the 44-save win in goal for the Bears, his second of the weekend. Daymin Dodge (‘00/Rice, Minn.) scored twice, including the game winner for Kenai River.

The Jets face a tough challenge as they travel to Blaine’s Schwan Super Rinks to play as visitors against the Brown Bears at 7 p.m. Friday and, if necessary, Saturday at 7:15 p.m. The Jets need a sweep of weekend games to send the series to a fifth and final contest back in Janesville Monday.

West Division

The 51-4-0-1 Aberdeen Wings and second place Bismarck Bobcats both collected a pair of weekend wins to grab strangleholds on their respective series.

The Minotauros, who finished more than 40-points behind the Wings in regular season standings, turned in respectable efforts, but dropped 3-1 and 4-3 decisions at the Odde Ice Center while the Wilderness were defeated 5-3 and 6-3 at the VFW Sports Center in Bismarck.

Minotauros 1 @ Wings 3

A 43-save effort from Keenan Rancier (‘00/Victoria, B.C.) helped keep it close for the Minotauros, but Aberdeen scored all it needed, grabbing a 2-0 lead in the opening 20-minutes, then widening the gap to 3-1 with the lone goal of the final period.

Thomas Manty (‘00/Andover, Mass.) scored twice for the Wings and Natan Vertes (‘00/Budapest, Hungary) fired the game winner.

Kyle Kukkonen (‘02/Maple Grove, Minn.) notched the lone Minotauros’ goal.

Minotauros 3 @ Wings 4

On Saturday night, the Minotauros jumped into a 2-0 first period lead, but the Wings pulled one back in the middle period, then tied it early in the third. Two goals in 20-seconds with under three minutes to play gave the Wings its first and only lead, Minot pulling one back with eight seconds to go. The final three goals all came on powerplays.

Trevor Russell (‘00/Old Hickory, Tenn.) scored the game winner for the Wings with other goals for Clayton Cosentino (‘00/San Carlos, Calif.); Spencer Schneider (‘00/Lakeville, Minn.) and Payton Matsui (‘00/Lakeville, Minn.).

Kukkonen, Tyler Kostelecky (‘01/Maple Grove, Minn.) and Blaine Warnert (‘00/Chaska, Minn.) fired the Minotauro markers.

The Wings will look to wrap up the series at Maysa Arena Thursday night at 7:05 p.m. CDT. If needed a fourth game will be played Friday at the same time and a fifth game would be back in Aberdeen Sunday.

Wilderness 3 @ Bobcats 5

The Bobcats carried a 2-1 lead out of the opening frame in the opening game Friday, then added two more in the second before the Wilderness struck for a pair in the opening five minutes of the third to get within a shot.

Ben Troumbley (‘01/Bovey, Minn.) sank the clincher for the Cats just past the halfway mark of the third and the game winner came from Tim Piechowski (‘00/Eden Prairie, Minn.). Other Bobcat goals were scored by Jon Bell (‘02/St. Cloud, Minn.), Jon Ziskie (‘01/Macomb, Mich.) and Owen Michaels (‘02/Novi, Mich.).

Jacob Zacgarewicz (‘01/Riverhead, N.Y.) did all he could for the Wilderness, facing 47 shots between the pipes and goals were supplied by Grant Docter (‘00/Golden Valley, Minn.); Gavin Rasmussen (‘00/Cloquet, Minn.) and Donte Lawson (‘00/Taconite, Minn.).

Wilderness 3 @ Bobcats 6

On Saturday, the Bobcats scored the lone goal of the opening period, then added two more early in the second before the Wilderness finally hit the board. The Wilderness through rallied in the final minutes of the period and the score was 4-3 heading to the final 20-minutes.

Two goals 95-seconds apart wrapped up the scoring for the Bobcats in the first seven minutes of the final frame.

Six different goal scorers stepped up for the Tabbies including Nico Chmelevski (‘02/Northville, Mich.) with the game winner. Others came from: Quinn Rudrud (‘01/Farmington, Minn.); Piechowski, Isaac Henkemeyer-Howe (‘00/Moorhead, Minn.); Troumbley and Jack Conroy (‘00/Chicago, Ill.).

Ethan Wolthers (‘01/Valencia, Calif.); Gunnar Thoreson (‘02/Andover, Minn.) and Mikol Sartor (‘01/Winnipeg, Man.) scored for the Wilderness.

The series will head to Cloquet and the Northwoods Credit Union Arena Tuesday (May 25) for the third game at 7:15 p.m. and if needed, a fourth game would be played at the same rink on Thursday at the same time. A fifth game would see teams heading back to Bismarck on Saturday night.

No Midwest teams play in the other series. In the East Division, the New Jersey Titans and Maine Nordiques have one win apiece and the Maryland Black Bears are also tied at 1-1 with the Johnstown Tomahawks.

In the South Division, the Wichita Falls Warriors up 2-0 on the Lone Star Brahmas while the Amarillo Bulls and Shreveport Mudbugs have one win apiece.