Royales break into USPHL-Midwest win column

The Marquette Royales — halfway through a tough eight-game stretch of road games to open its USPHL-Midwest campaign managed to put up its first ‘W’ of the season in a big way at Farmington, MI on Friday (Sept. 25), downing the host Michigan Wild 11-2.

In other USPHL-Midwest games on the same night, Traverse City Hounds spoiled the home opener for the Alpena Flyers with a 6-2 win; Tri-City Icehawks downed the visiting Kalkaska Rhinos 7-2; Chicago Cougars remained perfect with a 6-2 win on the road against the Steele County Blades; St. Croix Valley Magicians earned a 3-1 win at home against the Wisconsin Rapids Riverkings and the Dells Ducks won 7-0 at Blaine against the host Energy.

Royales 11 at Wild 2

This game was actually even at 2-2 after a period, but it was all Royales after that with a six-pack of unanswered middle period markers and three more down the stretch.

Jason Dahlquist, 20, from Rhinelander, WI scored two and added three assists while Jeremy Joyce, 20, from Muskegon, MI and Austyn Renn, 18, from Racine, MN both collected two goals and two assists in the game.

Erich Walter, 18, from Houghton, MI added a goal and three assists, 18, from Brook Park, MN collected a goal and two helpers. Kris Maxon, 20, from Munising, MI and Halverson Gemignani, 17, from Houghton, MI both scored a goal and added an assist with the other goal scored by Ryan Ely, 19, from Marquette.

Jakob Emrich, 16, from Sterling Heights, MI and Blake Anderson, 19, from White Lake, MI scored the Wild goals.

Kyle Mugica, 20, from California made 32 saves to pick up his team’s first win after four defeats while David Hellebuyck, 17, from Sterling Heights, MI and Kory Dombrowski, 20, from Florida shared the work in goal for the Wild, combining to make 73 saves.

Teams are scheduled to play a rematch at the Farmington Hills Arena Saturday.

Hounds 6 Flyers 2 

A five-goal second period had the Traverse City Hounds up 6-1 heading to the third and the host Alpena Flyers managed to pull just one back at the Northern Lights Arena Friday (Sept. 25) night.

Not all goals appeared on the game sheet, but David Kiel, 17, from Otsego, MI; Clayton Dowlan, 18 from Traverse City and David Becker, 18, from Traverse City scored at least one apiece for the Hounds

Aaron Nowak, 16, from Alpena had at least one of the goals for the Flyers.

Aaron Neighbor, 19, from Hartland, MI picked up the win in goal with a 33-save effort and Hunter Myers, 20, from Farmington Hills, MI stopped 34 shots in goal for the Flyers.

The same two teams will go at it again again on Saturday in Alpena.

Rhinos 2 at Icehawks 7

The host Tri City Icehawks held a slim 2-1 margin over the Kalkaska Rhinos after a period, but the next Rhinos tally didn’t come until three minutes to go in the contest by which time the host team had piled another five onto its lead.

Benito Posa, 16, from Grand Blanc, MI paced the Icehawks attack with two goals and an assist while John Matson, 18, from Alaska and Austin Caryl, 18, from Ann Arbor, MI both added a goal and an assist. Krisjanis Reinfelds, 19, from Latvia picked up two assists and other Icehawks goals came from: C.J. Bradburn, 18, from Ann Arbor, MI; Addison Edwards, 20, from Arizona and Logan Gatza, 20, from Frankenmuth, MI.

Robert Cerepak, 20, from New Jersey and Matt Culot, 19, from Massachusetts, scored the Rhinos goals.

Cody Foster, 20, from California,  stopped 10 shots to earn the win for the Icehawks and the work in goal for the Rhinos was shared by Austin Hannaford, 19, from Alberta and Alex Jones, 16, from Arizona. They combined to stop 34 of 41 in goal for Kalkaska.

The Rhinos are scheduled to stay in Bay City for another contest Saturday (Sept. 26).

Cougars 6 at Blades 2 

The Cougars roared into this weekend matchup with a 6-0 record despite playing no home games to date.

At the Four Seasons Center in Owatonna, MN Friday (Sept. 25), the Cats entered the final period holding a slim 1-0 lead.

Three goals in four minutes had the visitors up 4-0 just past the halfway mark of the period, but the Blades battled back with of its own and had the lead cut in half with 5:37 to go. The Cougars though took over from their, firing three more down the stretch for a more lopsided margin.

The Cougars had six different goal scorers in the game but Jonathan Dagnal, 19, from Pennsylvania, Matthew Letmanski, 17, from Wheaton, IL and Gavin Nickerson, 20, from Oregon each collected a goal and an assist. Willy Doremus, 18, from Colorado; Joey Palermo, 18, from Medinah, IL and Ryan Hutchinson, 20, from Chicago each assisted on a pair. Cougars’ other goals came from: Tom Stainslavski, 20, from Palos Hills, IL; Mike Watson, 19, from Colorado and Jesper Lonnberg, 20, from Sweden.

Jesse Guyer, 17, from Utah and Clayton Huss, 19, from Pleasant Hill, IA scored for the Blades.

Jessie Heisz, 18, from Janesville, WI turned aside 29 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Cougars while Wyatt Ulrich, 19, from International Falls, MN stopped 55 for the Blades.

The Cougars are scheduled to meet theBlades again on Saturday (Sept. 26

Riverkings 1 at Magicians 3

Trailing 1-0 entering the final period, the host St. Croix Valley Magicians scored the tying and go-ahead marker, 2:32 apart in the first half of the third period and buried one more in the final minute for insurance and a 3-1 win against the visiting Wisconsin Rapids Riverkings.

Ben Falk, 20, from East Bethel, MN; Cole Buhl, 17, from South St. Paul, MN and Tanner Decker, 19, from Green Bay, WI scored the Magician goals and Kevin Van Bokkelen, 18, from Hudson, OH scored for the Riverkings.

Quentin Prokopetz, 19, from Clarkston, MI picked up the win in goal with a 30-save game and Ryan Kostelnik, 19, from Rocky River, OH stopped 25 in goal for the Riverkings.

The same two teams will be back in action in Hudson on Saturday (Sept. 26).

Ducks 7 at Energy 0

Jared Young, 20, from Colorado stopped all 20 shots he faced and his Dells Ducks teammates gave him plenty of offensive support in a 7-0 win at the Fogerty Arena against the host Blaine Energy.

The Ducks scored the lone first period marker and added three more in the second and third to pull away from its host.

Alex Radcliffe, 19, from Masschusetts paced the offense with a goal and two assists for the Ducks, Victor Morgan, 18, from South St. Paul, MN; Sherman Mowery, 19, from Kentwood, MI and David Kaplan, 18, from Vernon Hills, IL each adding a goal and an assist. Colin Jones, 18, from Overland Park, KS, Felix Conrads, 20, from Naperville, IL  and Josh Pilatsky, 19, from New Jersey, scored the other goals.

Blair Sanders, 20, from Kansas City, MO made 50 stops in goal for the Energy.

The Ducks and Energy will go back at it on Saturday (Sept. 26) in Blaine.