Pries fires a pair in Freeze NA3HL win.

Cameron Pries, 18, from Waterloo, IA fired his second of the game halfway though the third period to break a 2-2 draw and keep the La Crosse Freeze undefeated with a 3-2 edge against the Alexandria Blizzard Friday (Sept. 25) at the Green Island Ice Arena.

In other NA3HL league games involving Midwest-based teams: The Peoria Mustangs earned a 4-0 shutout on the road against the Wisconsin Whalers; West Michigan Wolves downed the Toledo Cherokee 8-5; St. Louis Jr. Blues earned a 3-1 edge at Nashville against the Jr. Predators; Twin City Steel hosted and defeated the Granite City Lumberjacks 4-1; Rochester Ice Hawks fell 5-2 at Breezy Point against the North Stars; It was Thunder vs. Thunderbolts in Evansville, with the Cincinnati Thunder coming out ahead 8-5 and the North Iowa Bulls pounded the host Chicago Bulldogs 16-1.

Blizzard 2 at Freeze 3

All of the scoring other than Pries’ game winner came in the opening period in this one, teams even at 2-2 from the 16:43 when Logan Norman, 19, from Luverne, MN, pulled the Blizzard even with a shorthanded tally. Alec Seeger, 18, from Anoka, MN scored the other Blizzard goal and Ben Henderson, 19, from North Branch, MN scored the other goal for the Freeze.

Andrew Wagner, 19, from East Lansing, MI made 30 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Freeze and Evan Bisek, 20, from New Prague, MN made 32 saves in goal for the Blizard.

The same two teams will play again in La Crosse tomorrow (Sept. 26).

Mustangs 4 at Whalers 0

Ross Lipic, 19, from Forsyth, IL, turned aside all of the 27 shots he faced to help the Peoria Mustangs pick up a shutout on the road at Oregon Ice.

The Mustangs scored single goals in the first and second periods and secured the win with two more in the third. Chance Homerin, 19, from Pekin, IL; Austin Wisely, 19, from Chillicothe, IL; Levi Armstrong, 20, from Champaign, IL and Joe Power Wayvon, 20, from Dunlap, IL looked after the scoring with a goal apiece.

Chris Kluesner, 18, from Dubuque, IA stopped 36 shots in goal for the Whalers.

Teams will play a return match in Peoria on Sunday (Sept. 27).

Cherokee 5 at Wolves 8

This wild one saw teams combine to score five in both the first and third periods. The West Michigan Wolves opened up a 3-2 edge against the Toledo Cherokee through the first period but teams were even at 4-4 heading to the third.

Wolves opened up a 6-4 cushion through the first half of the frame, but the Cherokee pulled one back to get within one with 8:37 to play.

Just over a minute later though, the two-goal cushion was restored and the clincher was fired into an empty Cherokee goal.

Dakota Ulmer, 19, from Walled Lake, MI  paced the Wolves’ attack with two goals and two assists and Chase Whallon, 19, from Grand Rapids, MI also scored twice while Josh Somers, 20, from Madison Heights, MI picked up a goal and two assists. Nathan Rieman, 18, from Bay City, MI collected a goal and assist with other goals scored by Ryan Price, 19, from New Jersey and Corey Siwula, 20, from Paw Paw, MI.

Austin Turner, 20, from Temperance, MI and Ricky Kwapich, 19, from Toledo, both scored twice for the Cherokee, Turner adding an assist. Tyler Zalecki, 20, from Northwood, OH had the other goal along with a couple of assists.

Joe Licata, 20, from New Jersey made 35 saves to collect the win in goal for the Wolves and Glen Bates, 20, from Ida, MI also handled 35 in goal for the Cherokee who will stay in town for another game on Saturday (Sept. 26).

Jr. Blues 3 at Jr. Predators 1 

The St. Louis Junior Blues opened up a 2-0 first period lead on the host Nasvhville Jr. Predators and that lead stood up until Andrew Kluge, 19, from Florida pulled the Preds back to within one in the first minute of the final period at the A-Game Rink.

That was the only shot to get by Zach Young, 18, from Robertsville, MO though as his 21 save effort held up, Alex Klaesner, 20, from St. Charles, MO making it official with his empty netter 38 seconds from the final buzzer.

Zach Mitchell, 18, from Chicago, IL and  Frankie Melton, 18, from St. Louis scored the first period goals.

Nicholas Ottenbacher, 18, from New Baltimore, MI made 17 stops in goal for the Jr. Preds.

The teams will faceoff again Saturday (Sept. 26).

Lumberjacks 1 at Steel 4 

An early season match up of undefeated West Division teams saw the host Twin City Steel use a three goal middle period as the difference in a 4-1 win at the White Bear Arena.

It was the Lumberjacks on the board first, Mack Stevens, 19, from St. Paul, MN scored the lone goal of the opening period. James Hale, 18, from Grand Island, NE  got the Steel on the board 4:16 into the second.

Joe Costello, 20, from Rochester, MI and Trevor Woytcke, 17, from Mound MN scored 37 seconds apart to push the Steel in front and pad its lead late in the second period, Paul Stehr, 19, from Forest Lake, MN finishing it off with his goal 20 seconds into the third period.

Gunnar Howg, 18, from Duluth, MN made 33 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Steel and Mac Berglove, 19, from Elk River, MN stopped 30 shots.

The Lumberjacks will move on to play against the Minnesota Flying Aces Saturday (Sept. 26) and the Steel is off until Oct. 2 when it travels to Alexandria.

Ice Hawks 2 at North Stars 5

Even at 1-1 after a period, the Breezy Point North Stars score a couple of unanswered second period goals and then another early in the third at the Breezy Point Ice Arena.

Dominik Bogdzuil, 17, from Latvia notched his second of the game with 3:59 to go to get the Rochester Ice Hawks to within a pair, but Josh Laven, 19, from Hopkins, MN made it official with his empty netter for the Stars 14 seconds from the final buzzer.

Jake Tomkowiak, 19, from Lindenhurst, IL scored two earlier goals for the North Stars with others added by Nick Blanchette, 19, from Aitken, MN and Christian Meisinger, 19, from Green Bay, WI.

Magnus Lindhe, 19, from Sweden turned aside 20 shots to pick up the win for the Stars and Sam Nelson, 20, from Eau-Claire, WI stopped 38 shots for the Ice Hawks.

The same two teams will play tomorrow night (Sept. 26), this time in Rochester.

Thunder 8 at Thunderbolts 5

The Cincinnati Thunder had this one all but settled early, opening up a 3-0 first period lead and expanding the margin to 6-1 before the middle period was four minutes old against the Thunderbolts at Swonder Ice Arena in Evansville.

The host team pulled back two before the end of the second, but the Thunder restored its five-goal cushion with two more in the third, the final pair going to the Thunderbolts in the final five minutes of the contest.

Brady Kiplinger, 18, from Springboro, OH scored two and set up two others for the Thunder, Brenden Williams, 20, from Virginia adding two goals and one assist. Albert Janele, 18, from Czech Republic picked up three assists and Tyler Simon, 18, from Ferndale, MI set up a pair. Trevor Veneklase, 17, from Tennessee chipped in a goal and assist with other goals for: Justin Bioni, 18, from Pennsylvania, Andrew Kraska, 17, from Tipp City, OH and Rory Callihan, 17, from Liberty Twp., OH.

Thunderbolts were led by Brandon Bornkamp, 18, from Fort Wayne, IN who fired a hat trick and added an assist. Brett Howard Jr. 19, from Texas add ed a goal and three assists and the other goal came from Manbir Nahal, 19, from Virginia.

Daniel Dolliver, 19, from Viriginia made 14 stops to pick up the win for the Thunder while both Bryson Lindenburgh, 17, from Evansville and Brian Forness, 19, from New Jersey took a turn in goal for the Thunderbolts, combining to turn aside 38 shots.

The Thunder will stick around for a game in Evansville on Saturday (Sept. 26).

Bulls 16 at Bulldogs 1

The Bulls opened the scoring before the game was two minutes old and rolled from there to a 5-0 first period cushion, widening it to a nine goal cushion before Philip Grippi, 18, from Glen Carbon, IL fired the only shot that would beat Zack St. John 18, from Coon Rapids, MN, in the North Iowa Bulls goal.

The Bulls added another in the second and pounded in another half dozen in the road for an overwhelming win against the host Chicago Bulldogs in Romeoville.

The Bulls spread out the scoring among 14 skaters, led by Brett Gravelle, 20, from Forest Lake who picked up four goals and two assists. Marshall Barnes, 18, from Edina collected two goals and three assists and Tommy Stang, 18, from Mendota Heights, MN picked up two goals and two assists while Jacob Cox, 19, from Barron, WI collected four assists and Carmen Delasandro, 20, from Pennsylvania notched a hat trick.

Jack Stang, 20, from Mendota Heights, MN scored two and assisted on another, Joe Guimont, 20, from Minneapolis, MN and Zack Cole, 18, from Andover, MN set up three apiece. Jerame Schuetzle, 19, from Buffalo, MN and Ryan Durant, 20, from Waupun, WI both picked up a goal and a helper and the other goal was scored by Adam Orn, 20, from Ramsay, MN.

Despite the lopsided goal total, Ray Smith, 18 and Dalton Baker, 19, both from Texas combined to turn aside 52 Bulls shots.

The Bulls will stay in Chicago for another game Saturday (Sept. 26).