Santa Maria hat trick paces Lakers

The Forest Lake Lakers got a three-goal effort from Caleb Santa Maria, 19, from Georgia on its way to another lopsided win Saturday (Sept. 19). This time, the Lakers rolled past the host St. Croix Valley Magicians at the Hudson Civic Center Ice Arena in Wisconsin.

In other USPHL action on the same night, the Chicago Cougars continued its dazzling start to the season with a 7-2 win on the road against the Dells Ducks; the Kalkaska Rhinos earned a weekend sweep with a 9-2 whipping of the Alpena Flyers; The Illiana Blackbirds broke into the win column and spoiled the home opener for the Detroit Fighting Irish with a 4-1 win; the Michigan Wild fell 5-1 on the road against the Tri-City Icehawks, the Steele County Blades grabbed a 7-0 shutout win on home ice against the visiting Blaine Energy and the Wisconsin Rapids Riverkings finishing off a season opening sweep with an 11-1 thrashing of the visiting Marquette Royales.

Lakers 8 at Magicians 2

Both the Lakers and Magicians have earned some impressive wins early in their respective seasons, but this one was all Lakers as they grabbed a 3-1 first period lead and never looked back. A 2-1 margin through the middle frame had it all but won, but the Lakers piled on another three in the final stanza.

Along with the three from Santa Maria, the Lakers got a goal and two assists from Brian Miller, 19, from New Jersey while Zach Remers, 20, from Florida; Anton Minaev, 18, from Russia; Drew Olson, 18, from Hugo, MN and Tristen Poliseno, 18, from California, both collected a goal and assist. Remers has piled up 17 points already this season.

Keegan Bauman, 16, from Champlin Park, MN and Alec Wedell, 18, from Stillwater, MN scored the Magician goals.

Aleks Zakirov, 18, from Russia turned aside 21 shots to grab the win in goal.

The Lakers are scheduled to wrap up a busy weekend playing host to the Wisconsin Rapids Riverkings on Sunday and the Magicians will be back in action Friday (Sept.25), also against the Riverkings

Flyers 2 at Rhinos 9

The Kalkaska Rhinos wrapped up a sweep at the Kalkaska Kaliseum, allowing its guest the first and final goals in the contest while pounding them with nine in between.

A four-goal second period turned a 2-1 edge into a 6-1 margin with still 20 minutes to play against a Flyers team that came to town with just nine skaters.

Matt Culot, 19, from Massachusetts scored two and assisted on two others for the Rhinos with Robert Cerepak, 20, from New Jersey adding a goal and three assists and Sasha Miniouchine, 17, from New Jersey setting up four.

Cameron Lanier, 19, from Massachusetts and Alexander Sprague, 16, from Arizona both scored a pair with other Rhino goals coming from Daniel Tokarz, 16, from New Jersey and Darren Aikens, 20, from Florida who also added two assists.

Andrej Fasko, 18, from Slovakia scored both Flyers goals.

Austin Hannaford, 18, from Alberta had 21 saves to earn the win in goal for the Rhinos and Hunter Myers, 20, from Farmington Hills MI was peppered with 57 shots at the other end.

The Flyers will play its home opener Friday (Sept. 25) against the Traverse City Hounds and the Rhinos will make the trip to Bay City to play the Tri-City Icehawks on the same night.

Blackbirds 4 at Fighting Irish 1

If a pair of lopsided defeats on home ice the previous weekend had any adverse effect on the Blackbirds it didn’t show up in this game.

Illiana blasted to a 3-0 first period cushion and added another in the middle frame before Dakota Potter, 17, from Rockwood, MI shattered the shutout bid of Blackbirds goaltender, Joe Stolfo, 19, from Lemont, IL 4:07 into the final period.

Anthony Ercoli, 20, from Chicago had a goal and assist for the Blackbirds and Austin Ahlers, 20, from Lake of the Hills, IL assisted on a pair. Other Illiana goals came from: Chase Bafia, 18, from Florida; Maxim Karpikov, 19, from Russia and Joe Starcevich, 19, from Saint John, IN.

Ronnie Shocker, 18, from Warren, MI and Austin Stefan, 17, from Ypsilante, MI split the work in goal for the Fighting Irish, combining to stop 60 of 64 shots.

The same two teams are scheduled to faceoff again in the Detroit area Sunday afternoon.

Wild 1 at Icehawks 5

Tri-City took advantage of playing on home ice scoring two unanswered first period goals and carrying a 4-1 lead into the third at the Bay County Civic Arena.

Logan Gatza, 20, from Frankenmuth, MI led the winners with a goal and assist and C.J. Bradburn, 18, from Ann Arbor, MI adding a goal and an assist and other goals scored by: Addison Collins, 19, from Twinsburg, OH; Addison Edwards, 20, from Arizona and Ricky Stanislawski, 19, from Houghton Lake, MI.

Ryan Radwan, 17, from Canton Michigan responded with the lone Wild goal.

Ryan Forman, 20, from Clio, MI picked up the win in goal with a 23-save effort and Dean Bucholz, 16, from Dearborn, Heights, MI stopped 29 of 34 in goal for the Wild.

The Icehawks will play host to the Kalkaska Rhinos Friday (Sept. 25) and the Michigan Wild will host a weekend set with the Marquette Royales.

Energy 0 at Blades 7

Wyatt Ulrich, 19, from International Falls handled all of the 31 shots he faced to earn the shutout in goal for the Blades while Chase Lewis, 19, from North Carolina paced the offense with two goals and two assists.

Jesse Guyer, 17, from Utah also scored a pair and Wilson Anderle, 20, from Hanover, MN had a goal and two assists. Jaeger Zwygart, 20, from Kansas City, MO picked up a goal and assist and Caleb Combs, 17, from Utah fired the other goal.

Next action for the Blades will be a weekend set on home ice against the undefeated Chicago Cougars Sept. 25-26 and the Energy will host the Dells Ducks on the same days.

Cougars 7 at Ducks 2 

If the were impressive in winning its first two games on the road the previous weekend, wrapping up a lopsided sweep of the defending Minnesota League champs with a 7-2 win showed this Cougars team is very much for real.

The Cougars owned a 3-0 lead by the end of the first period and teams traded two goals each in the middle period before the Cougars put it away with two more down the stretch.

The Cougars had seven different shooters scoring goals in the game, Hunter Schiffman, 18, from Rockford IL and Jonathan Dagnal, 19, from Pennsylvania pacing the attack with a goal and assist each. Other goals came from: Matthew Letmanski, 17, from Wheaton, IL; Gavin Nickerson, 20, from Oregon; Joey Palermo, 18, from Medinah, IL; Mike Watson, 19, from Colorado and Jesper Lonnberg, 20, from Sweden.

Alex Radcliffe, 19, from Massachusetts and David Kaplan 18, from Chicago, IL scored for the Ducks.

Dylan Gillis, 18, from Naperville, IL handled 16 of 18 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Cougars; Nolan Slager 19, from Zeeland, MI turning aside 34 of 41 in goal for the Ducks.

The Cougars will look to keep its season opening road winning streak alive with a trip to Owatonna, MN to play the Steele County Blades next weekend while the Ducks will be in Blaine, MN to face the Energy — both Friday/Saturday sets.

Royales 1 at Riverkings 11

After a 4-1 win the previous day the Riverkings exploded for a double digit effort at the South Wood County Recreation Center against a short-staffed Royales team.

Rapids owned a 4-0 lead after a period and added four more before Austyn Renn 18, from Racine, MN scored the lone Royales goal late in the middle period.

Tyler Carey, scored four and assisted on another for the Riverkings and Austin Luxford added a goal and three assists. Both are 20, from Sun Prairie. Kevin Van Bokkelen, 18, from Hudson, OH and Blake Anderson, 20, from Waunakee, WI both collected three assists in the game, Harrison Kohl, 18, from New Lennox, IL and Adam Peterson, 17, from Chicago, IL both adding a goal and a helper.

Other Riverkings goals came from: Jake LeBauer, 18, from Colorado; Austyn Quarters, 18, from Montana; Reed Kaiser, 19, from Wyoming and Colin Hass, 19, from Marinette, WI.

Ryan Gill, 17, from Chicago turned aside 24 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Riverkings.

The Riverkings will hit the road next weekend (Sept. 25-26) for games in Hudson, WI against the St. Croix Valley Magicians.