Norskies buried under Miners’ first period barrage.

Thief River Falls Norskies, one of two Minnesota-based teams in the Superior International Junior Hockey League based primarily in northwestern Ontario, found itself buried quickly, trailing the English River Miners 4-0 before the game was 16 minutes old on Friday (Oct. 28) at the Ralph Engelestad Arena.

Keaton Huot, 20, from Thief River Falls, pulled one back with his goal 69 seconds from the end of the opening period and Blair Lindholm, 18, from Thief River Falls, made it a two-goal game with his goal in the opening minute of the middle period, only to have the visitors add two more later in the period to carry a 6-2 cushion into the third.

Connor Smith, 18, from Pinckney, MI scored for the Norskies in the opening minute of the third and Cody Aarvig, 18, from Grand Forks, ND added another with 5:12 to play to once again get the home team within a pair, but Nash Dabb, 19, from British Columbia fired a powerplay goal with a little over a minute to play for some extra Miners’ insurance.

Ryder Prue, 19, from Alberta scored twice in the first period for the Miners with other visitors goals coming from: Austin Kuhn, 20, from Alberta, Morgan Scriber, 19, from Alberta, Matt O’Neill, 19, from Manitoba and Dwayne Auger, 19, from Alberta.

Both Minnesota teams will be in action on Saturday (Oct. 29) as the Norskies welcome the Miners for the second of three weekend matches an the Minnesota Iron Rangers travels to faceoff with the host Thunder Bay North Stars at Fort William Arena.