Jets, IceDogs advance to NAHL Midwest Division final.

By Jim den Hollander

Editor

Midwesthockey.info

Among the highlights involving Midwest-based North American Hockey League teams on Friday (April 21, 2017) was the Janesville Jets punching its ticket to the Midwest Division Championship series as it finished off its Best of Five Division Semi with a three-game sweep of the Coulee Region Chill.

The Jets will face the Fairbanks IceDogs in the Division championship series as the Minnesota Magicians fell in three straight to the Alaska club – the third coming on Friday.

In other action involving Midwest-based teams in the Central Division, the Minot Minotauros avoided elimination with a 7-1 whipping of the host Aberdeen Wings and the Minnesota Wilderness took control of its series with a 4-2 win on the road against the Brookings Blizzard.

Jets 4 at Chill 3 (ot)

After grabbing control of this one with a pair of home ice wins the previous weekend, the Jets finished off the Chill with its second straight overtime win, this time at the Green Island Ice Arena in La Crosse, WI.

Cole Paskus, 19, from Madison, WI fired home the series winning marker 5:07 into the extra from Michael Maloney, 19, from McHenry, IL and Jack Gates, 19, from California.

The Jets owned a 2-0 lead after a period as Peter Bates, 20, from Evanston, IL notched his first of the series in the opening minute and Jakov Novak, 18, from Ontario added the other with 4:43 to play in the frame.  Assists on those goals went to Kip Hoffman, 20, from Huntley, IL; Cullen Munson, 21, from Edina, MN; Ian Malcolmson, 17, from Waukesha, WI and Tanner Polglaze, 20, from Beloit, IL.

The Chill finally got on the board 72 seconds into the middle period with a goal from Justin Kendall, 20, from Holmen, WI with set ups for Marshall Plunkett, 18, from West Salem, WI and Caleb Schroer, 20, from Wisconsin Rapids, WI. Isaac Theissen, 21, from Monroe, MI tied the game with 6:27 to play in the second from Kendall and teams remained deadlocked at 2-2 after 40 minutes.

Hoffman notched his second of the series 69 seconds into the final frame from Munson and Bates but the Chill battled back one more time to even it up with a goal from Joey Sofo, 20, from Sylvania, OH with just 75 seconds to play in the contest with goaltender, Brad Arvantis, 19, from Massachusetts on the bench in favor of an extra attacker. Assists on that one went to Steven Quagliata, 20, from Bartlett, IL and Schroer.

Jacob Barczewski, 17, from O’Fallon, MO picked up the win in goal for the Jets, handling 36 of 39 shots while Arvantis stopped 40 shots in goal for the Chill.

Magicians 2 at IceDogs 7

The Magicians knew it was in tough after dropping the first two games of its Central Division Best of Five Semi on home ice and the IceDogs made the team’s quick trip to Alaska unpleasant with a lopsided series ending win.

Jarret Lee, 17, from Hibbing, MN gave the Magicians an early glimmer with this goal 4:54 into the contest off a feed from Jake Cass, 21, from Stillwater, MN.

But the IceDogs struck back with four of its own before the end of the opening frame, scored by: Benton Maass, 18, from Elk River, MN; Bauer Neudecker, 18, from St. Louis Park, MN; Luke Orysiuk, 19, from Alberta and Cayden Cahill, 20, from Alaska.

Hampus Eriksson, 20, from Sweden added the lone goal of the middle period to give the home team a 5-1 cushion and Cahill finished off a hat trick with two more, a little over three minutes apart through middle stages of the final period.

Caleb Hite, 20, from Grand Blanc, MI;  fired one more for the Magicians with 4:20 to play with assists for Cass and Brendan Skarda, 18, from Minnetonka, MN.

Ivan Prosvetov, 17, from Russia and Jake Acton, 18, from California, split the work in goal for the Magicians, combining to allow seven goals on 35 shots. Eric Gordon, 17, from Duluth, MN picked up the win in goal with a 29 save effort for the IceDogs.

Minotauros 7 at Wings 1

The Minotauros faced a tough task after dropping the first two games of this series on home ice, but served notice on Friday it wasn’t about to go quietly into the night.

Four goals in the opening 9:50 all but settled this one. Tyler Jeanson, 19, from Manitoba scored twice in the period with others for Spencer Zwiener, 20, from Sartell, MN and Zack Bross, 21, from Weldon Spring, MO. Bross also picked up a couple assists with others for: Nate Pionk, 20, from Hermantown, MN; Jake Dittel, 21, from Hugo, MN; Austin Martinsen, 19, from Farmington, MN and Alex Adams, 19, from Grand Rapids, MN.

The Wings struck back late in the opening segment, Colton Fletcher, 20, from Alaska, scoring his team’s only goal, from Nolan Sullivan, 17, from Eden Prairie, MN and Colin Raver, 20, from Bartlett, IL.

Austin Dollimer, 19, from Farmington, MN notched another late in the second for the Minotauros with help from Zwiener and it was Pionk and Zwiener in the third adding to the lead with assists from Luke Davison, 21, from Madison, WI; Miroslav Mucha, 19, from Slovakia; Bross and Paul O’Connor, 21, from St. Peters, MO.

Austin Park, 18, from Colorado picked up the win in goal for the Toros, handling 32 of 33 Wings’ shots and Forbes Ploszaj, 20, from Arizona made 24 saves in goal for the Wings.
Teams are scheduled to regroup on Saturday for game four of this series as the Wings look to advance while the top seeded Minotauros hope to force a fifth game.

Wilderness 4 at Blizzard 2

After a split the previous weekend at Northwood Credit Union Arena at Cloquet, the Blizzard hoped to take advantage of home ice on the second weekend at Larson Ice Center, but the Wilderness had a different plan in mind.

After a scoreless opening period, both teams notched a pair in the second, but it was all Wilderness down the stretch, using a 16-8 edge on the shot clock to score a pair of goals to capture the key win.

Zach Mills, 20, from Cottage Grove, MN and Gunnar Goodmanson, 20, from Buffalo, MN had the second period goals for the Wilderness with assists for Jesse Farabee, 20, from New York; Louis Roehl, 19, from Eden Prairie; Nick Altmann, 20, from Duluth, MN and Ashton Altmann, 18, from Duluth, MN.

Brenden Stanko, 18, from Howell, MI scored the first and final goals of the middle frame for the Blizzard with both goals assisted by Brandon Kruse, 18, from Saline, MI and Nicholas Cardelli, 19, from Wood Dale, IL.

Michael Zuffante, 19, from Bloomingdale, IL fired the game winner with 6:32 to play in the contest from Farabee and Tristan Rostagno, 20, from Pewaukee, WI.

Tim Nicksic, 21, from Tomah, WI fired the clincher into an empty net with 77 seconds to play, unassisted.

Luke Kania, 21, from Chicago, IL picked up the win in goal for the Wilderness, handling 28 of 30 Blizzard shots and Jake Begley, 18, from Mahtomedi, MN stopped 35 shots in goal for the Blizzard.

The same two teams will tangle again on Saturday, the Wilderness with a shot to wrap up the series while the Blizzard tries to even it up on home ice and push it to a fifth and deciding game.