WSHL WEEKEND WRAP-UP; February 6-10, 2019

West Sound Admirals @ Seattle Totems

Seattle 9, West Sound 5 – Dmitri Murinov scored four goals for West Sound, including a natural hat trick in the first 6:16 of the game, but nine different Seattle skaters found the net as the Totems out-scored the Admirals, 9-5.

The Totems found themselves down 3-0 thanks to Murinov, cut the lead to one by the end of the first period, tied the game and took a 4-3 lead in the second, then pulled away with five goals in the third.

Michael Shippee and Tom Ignatovich each had a goal and three assists for Seattle while Kyle Chambers collected assists on four of the five West Sound goals.

Fresno Monsters @ Valencia Flyers

Valencia 3, Fresno 2 (OT) – Danylo Moroz scored at 3:23 of overtime to give the Valencia Flyers a 3-2 win, snapping a 12-game winning streak for the Fresno Monsters.

In three-on-three overtime, Valencia’s Dominik Knap controlled the puck high in the Fresno zone, then played the puck down low behind the net to Moroz, who made a sharp cut-back to elude his check, moved to the front of the net, and lifted the puck up over the right shoulder of Fresno goaltender Tyler Mathews.

Fresno tied the game after falling behind 1-0 and 2-1, but could not come up with the tying goal a third time.

There was no scoring for the first 33:46 of the game as Mathews (32 saves) and Valencia’s Mack Willy (30) matched each other save for save.  Fresno fired 19 shots on Willy in the third period, but he stopped 18, allowing the Flyers to get the game to overtime and, eventually, pick up the win.

Eimantas Noreika finally broke the ice, putting the Flyers up 1-0, only to see Fresno tie it before the second intermission on a goal by Logan Domagala.  Chris Bisenieks restored the Flyers’ lead with 9:08 left in the third period, but Gustaf Wranghede tied it back up 2:19 later, sending the game to OT.

Northern Colorado Eagles @ El Paso Rhinos

The Northern Colorado Eagles went into County Events Center in El Paso and played three tight, low-scoring games against the Rhinos, but ultimately could not generate offense and dropped all three contests.  The three-game sweep allowed the Rhinos to open up a 17-point lead over idle Oklahoma City at the top of the Mid-Western Division.

El Paso 3, Northern Colorado 1 – El Paso goaltender Nils Velm stopped 20 of 21 shots as the Rhinos defeated the Northern Colorado Eagles, 3-1, on Friday night.

Velm allowed Jarret Marks to score midway through the first period, tying the game at 1-1, but handled all 14 shots directed at him over the final two periods to allow the Rhinos to restore their lead and take the regulation win.

Adam Stalzer put the Rhinos up 2-1 with 4:33 left in the first period and Dominic Erdt put El Paso up by two goals at 14:44 of the second.

El Paso out-shot Northern Colorado, 13-8, in a scoreless third period.

Dillon Manchester scored the other El Paso goal and Marshall Murphy made 31 saves for the Eagles.

El Paso 4, Northern Colorado 1 – Stalzer broke a 1-1 tie with 2:05 left in the second period Saturday, giving El Paso a one-goal lead at the second intermission, and the Rhinos tacked on a pair in the third for a 4-1 win.

With the Rhinos on a power play late in the second period there was a faceoff in the right circle of the Eagles zone.  El Paso won the draw cleanly back to the right point where Justin-Cole Dubecky sent it over to Donald Alchin at the left point and his shot was tipped by Stalzer on the way through.  The Eagles pleaded their case for a high stick, but the goal stood and the Rhinos carried some momentum into the locker room.

Northern Colorado again stayed with the division leaders for most of the game, but Filip Schultz scored 3:13 into the third period to give El Paso some breathing room and Max Kamper added an empty-netter in the final minute to wrap it up.

Marks was again the only NoCo player to light the lamp, doing so just :32 after Donald Alchin put the Rhinos up 1-0 in the first period.

Richie Parent made his WSHL debut in the Rhinos crease and stopped 18 of 19 shots.

Marshall made 30 saves for the Eagles.

El Paso 3, Northern Colorado 0 – Oliwer Stensson scored two goals and Parent turned aside 32 Eagles shots in a 3-0 Rhinos win on Sunday that completed the sweep.

Jonas Burman gave El Paso a 1-0 lead 1:07 after the opening puck drop and the Rhinos never trailed.  Stensson added to the lead late in the first period and added his second goal in the middle frame.

Murphy played another strong game, stopping 33 of 36 shots, but did not get any goal support.

Dallas Snipers @ Wichita Jr. Thunder

Speaking of playoff-style hockey, the Wichita Jr. Thunder won three straight one-goal games over the Dallas Snipers in front of their fans at Wichita Ice Center.  The Jr. Thunder still trail fourth-place Dallas by 32 points in the Mid-Western Division standings but, while there may not be a tangible result coming out of the series for Wichita, you can bet it was valuable.  They could end up facing the Snipers in the first round of the playoffs and you can bet the team will be looking back at this series to prepare should that scenario play out.  From Dallas’ perspective, they missed an opportunity to pass Northern Colorado, who they trailed by just three points heading into the week. 

Wichita 6, Dallas 5 – Wichita’s Brett Cameron tied the game, 5-5, with 1:51 left in the third period on Friday and Braeden Thomas won it for the Jr. Thunder with :15 left on the clock.

Cameron won a faceoff to the right of Snipers goaltender Alexander Aleshkin (42 saves), drawing the puck back to Felix Ryberg at the blue line.  Ryberg’s hard, low slap shot was stopped by Aleshkin, but Quinn O’Reilly got a whack at it, then Cameron popped the rebound in to tie the game.

With time running out in regulation time, Dallas was applying pressuring in the Wichita end, but Thomas skated the puck out of danger, then sped all the way down the ice, putting a wrist shot on net from a severe angle that Aleshkin held onto for a faceoff.

Tyler Alverson won the faceoff and Tyler Inlow jumped in to poke it towards the front of the net where Thomas found himself open with time to make a forehand-backhand move and tuck the puck past Aleshkin for the game-winning goal.

Eleven different players scored goals in the game.

Wichita 3, Dallas 2 (OT) – Saturday’s game was another one-goal affair with overtime needed to determine a winner.  It was Wichita’s Anton Frolin who scored the deciding goal with :43 left in the sudden-death period – his first WSHL goal.

As the OT period went into the final minute, Dallas goalie Kyle Plantz (34 saves) made a spectacular lunging play to deny Wichita’s Marcus Ohlsson-Ornelius but the Jr. Thunder maintained possession in the Dallas end.

Ohlsson-Ornelius, who assisted on all three Wichita goals, tried to make a pass from the point and it hit a Dallas player’s skate but re-directed right to Eric Back who skated into the right circle before zipping a pass across the slot to Frolin who had slid down into a prime shooting position.  He made no mistake and the Jr. Thunder had their second one-goal win in as many nights.

The Jr. Thunder took a 2-1 lead on a Carson Weingartner goal at the 4:37 mark of the third period.  Arvidas Domeika got Dallas back even and the two teams played the remaining 12:46 without either team scoring, necessitating overtime.

Dallas out-shot Wichita, 16-4, in the third period but Jr. Thunder netminder Ericson stopped 15 of them.  He made 49 saves for the game.

Wichita 5, Dallas 4 – The Snipers failed to hold onto a 4-3 lead with 4:02 left in Sunday’s game as the Jr. Thunder scored twice in a span of 1:01 to tie, then go ahead, and win the game, 5-4.

Thomas scored the first four goals for Wichita.  With the Jr. Thunder trailing by a goal and time getting short, Tyler Inlow skated down the right wing deep into the Dallas zone, then found Tomas with a pass back into the slot and he had room to fire a shot past Danny Jamison (32 saves) low to his glove side.

Just over a minute later, the Snipers allowed another pass from the right wing into the slot – this time from Quinn O’Reilly to Lukas Johansson, who showed that somebody other than Thomas could score for the Jr. Thunder, notching the winning goal.

Thomas scored three times in the first period – with Tyler Alverson picking up an assist on all three – then the Jr. Thunder was kept quiet until the final 4:02.

Jasa Jenko scored twice for Dallas and Wichita goalie Robert Allen made 38 saves.

Long Beach Bombers @ Valencia Flyers

Long Beach 8, Valencia 2 – The Long Beach Bombers scored five times in the first period on their way to an 8-2 win over the Valencia Flyers on Friday night.

Gennady Malasheko scored twice in the first-period flurry for the Bombers and Tomas Urbanec also had a pair of goals for Long Beach.

Valencia stuck with starting goaltender Mack Willy after the rough first period and he made 23 of his 38 saves over the final two periods – 17 in the third frame alone.

Long Beach goalie Domenic Bosetti made 21 saves on 23 shots.

Flyers goals came from Joseph Aguirre and Danylo Moroz.

Meadow Lake Mustangs vs. Cold Lake Wings (home-and-home series)

The Meadow Lake Mustangs created a little more separation over the fourth-place Cold Lake Wings, opening up a 16-point gap on their division rivals.  Cold Lake’s losing streak reached 12 games, but they did pick up a point for an OTL on Saturday.

Meadow Lake 7 @ Cold Lake 4 – Andrew Hawes scored two goals and assisted on two others to lead the Meadow Lake Mustangs to a 7-4 win over the Wings in Cold Lake on Friday.

With the Mustangs leading, 4-3, late in the second period, Shane Hounsell and Zackery Kozinski scored goals :15 apart to give Meadow Lake a three-goal lead.

Noah Finlay made 31 saves for the Mustangs.

Meadow Lake 6, Cold Lake 5 (OT) – Cold Lake held a 4-2 lead midway through the second period on Saturday, but Meadow Lake rallied to tie on Kozinski’s third goal of the game with 5:01 to go in regulation and won it on Ostin Fontaine’s goal 1:21 into overtime.

Shane Hounsell, who had two goals in the game, made a nice play to steal the puck on a Cold Lake breakout and moved the puck to Geirdue Janvier.  Janvier waited for Kozinski to move into position, him with a pass, and he was able to knock it into the net to tie the game.

In the extra session, Justyn Noltcho-Clarke rifled a severe-angle shot into the side of the net, but gathered it back up, circled the net, and fed Fontaine in the slot where he had time and space to make an accurate shot and bury the game-winner.

In addition to the game-winning goal, Fontaine also had a pair of assists in the game.

Cold Lake’s Brendan Culbertson (38 saves) stopped 17 of 18 shots in the third period…

Dylan Tonks scored three goals for Cold Lake – one in each period.

Mustangs goalie Trevor Buckmeier made 32 saves.

Casper Bobcats @ Steamboat Wranglers

The Casper Bobcats went into Steamboat and won two big games against a Wranglers team closing in on them in the Mountain Division.  Two regulation wins by the hosts would have pulled them within four points of their guests, but Casper re-asserted their position in the division and now have a 14-point cushion on the Wranglers. 

Casper 5, Steamboat 2 – Tyrell Bourk scored :26 into the second period to give the Steamboat Wranglers a 2-1 lead, but Daniel Silar scored twice to complete a hat trick and spark a 5-2 comeback win for the Casper Bobcats Friday night in Colorado.

Silar scored his second and third goals in the final 2:44 of the second period, giving Casper a 4-2 lead going into the third period.

Ludwig Nordqvist stopped all 10 shots he faced in the third period to preserve the win for the Bobcats.  He made 24 saves in the game.

Tristen Wells scored the other Steamboat goal in the first period.

Casper 5, Steamboat 3 – Casper’s Denis Matic broke a 3-3 tie with 3:11 left in the game and the Bobcats snuck out of Steamboat following a 5-3 win on Saturday.

With the game tied late in regulation and the Wranglers pressing for the go-ahead goal, they failed to keep a puck in at the blue line.  Daniel Silar bumped the puck forward for Matic and he out-raced three Steamboat players to get to the puck as it rolled into the Steamboat end of the ice.

Wranglers goalie Jordan Belley, who made 37 saves saves in the game, came out of his crease to try to get to the puck before Matic, but the Bobcats forward was able to get his stick there first and flick it up in the air and into the net for the game-winning goal.

Steamboat pulled Belley for the extra attacked and put pressure on, but Nordqvist (31 saves) and the Bobcats held the fort.

Silar added an empty-netter with :21 remaining to put the game away.

Casper’s Trevor Roehrig scored twice in the first period and the Bobcats led, 2-0, after one period.

Utah Outliers @ Cheyenne Stampede

Hosting Utah for a three-game series was a tall task for the Cheyenne Stampede, and they ultimately failed to claim any points in the standings, but the Stamps continue to play competitive hockey for stretches.  They gave the Outliers all they could handle in the opening game but seems to lose steam as the weekend progressed, failing to gain any ground on fourth-place Steamboat in the Mountain Division race.

Utah 5, Cheyenne 3 – Cheyenne’s Bryan Watters tied the game midway through the third period, but the Utah Outliers responded just :11 later to restore their lead and won, 5-3, Friday night at the Cheyenne Ice and Events Center.

It was a tremendous effort by the Stampede that included 54 saves from goaltender Brendan Carew.

With Utah up, 3-2, Hakan Salt was able to corral the puck in a scrum on the left-wing boards in the Cheyenne net and get the puck to Kody Kifer and he took off down the ice with Watters on a two-on-two.  Kifer threaded a pass to Watters that he collected on his backhand as he split the Utah defense.  Cheynne’s leading scorer was able to hold off the defender and make a move to his forehand, holding onto the puck until the last second and popping it past Utah goaltender Oscar Wahlgren.

Cheyenne’s celebration was short-lived, however, as the Outliers restored their lead shortly after the ensuing faceoff with Benji Mickel stuffing the puck under Carew in a goal-mouth scramble.

It was the second time in the game Utah responded quickly to a big Cheyenne goal.  Salt gave the Stampede a short-lived 2-1 lead with 1:57 left in the first period, but Zach Dornseifer evened it up just :20 later and the first period ended with the two teams deadlocked, 2-2.

Anthony Masanotti added an insurance goal for Utah with 5:22 left to go in the game.

Utah 9, Cheyenne 2 – The Stampede stayed in the game in the early going Saturday, but Utah scored five unanswered goals in the second period to pull away in a 9-2 win.

Nicholas Ness had a hat trick for the Outliers while Matt Bartel and Bradley Green each added a pair.

Watters figured in both Stampede goals, setting up Kifer for the ice-breaker 4:18 into the contest, and scoring one of his own that tied the game, 2-2, at the 14:49 mark of the first period.

Utah 11, Cheyenne 0 – The Outliers wore the Stampede down and Sunday was an 11-0 rout led my Michel’s four goal effort.

Zak Albers had two goals and an assist and Alexander Charin had three assists while Wahlgren made 19 saves to record the shutout.

Fresno Monsters @ San Diego Sabers

San Diego 10, Fresno 6 – There were goals aplenty at Iceplex Escondido Friday night.  The San Diego Sabers scored six times in the second period of a 10-6 win over the visiting Fresno Monsters.

Josef (3-3-6) and Karel (1-5-6) Kankovsky spearheaded the Monsters offense with Aleksis Leskinen (2-2-4) and Jakub Vesely (2-1-3) providing support.

Lohan Domagala scored twice for the Monsters, who suffered their second loss in a row after winning their previous 12 games.

Fresno led, 3-0, after scoring three times in the first 7:36 of the game, but San Diego stuck with starting goaltender Vinay Pathak, and he settled down and benefitted from the Sabers outbreak in the second period.  Pathak finished with 36 saves in his first WSHL start.

Southern Oregon Spartans @ Bellingham Blazers

The Southern Oregon Spartans showed some signs that their game is ramping up as the playoffs get nearer.  They went into Bellingham and won two of three games against the Northwest Division leaders, opening up a 13-point lead over fourth-place West Sound in the division standings.

Bellingham 7, Southern Oregon 2 – Thomas Steven scored a natural hat trick in the first period and the Bellingham Blazers never looked back in their 7-2 win over the Southern Oregon Spartans on Friday night.

Ruslan Abianov assisted on all three of Steven’s first-period tallies and Timothy Prexler also had three assists for the Blazers.

Spartans goals came from Jan Sokolik and Logan Emery.

Bellingham’s Edward Coffey stopped 16 of 18 shots for the win.

Southern Oregon 5, Bellingham 4 (OT) – Southern Oregon let a two-goal lead slip away Saturday but Emery’s second goal of the game 1:40 into overtime gave the Spartans an impressive 5-4 road win.

Spartans netminder Kayden Pickles made a big stop in the Southern Oregon end, then another shot went wide and ringed around the boards allowing the Spartans to break out.

Hayden Moistner skated down the left side of the ice as Emery headed for the net creating a two-on-one.  Moistner put a pass on Emery’s tape and he had time to move around Bellingham goalie Kolter Pawlick with a forehand-backhand move and deposit the puck into the net to give the Spartans the win.

With the Spartans up 4-2 late in the second period, Timothy Prexler and Thomas Steven scored goals :34 apart to tie the game.

Bellingham out-shot Southern Oregon, 12-8, through a scoreless third period but neither Pickles (40 saves) nor Kolter Pawlick of Bellingham, would cede the go-ahead goal.

Southern Oregon 2, Bellingham 1 – The Spartans showed that Saturday’s OT win was not a fluke by winning again on Sunday, this time in regulation.  Jan Sokolik broke a 1-1 tie with 3:58 left in regulation to give the Spartans a 2-1 win.

Sokilik came off the Spartans bench on a change and surprised a Bellingham puck-carrier just inside the Southern Oregon blue line.  The puck squirted free into the neutral zone and Sokolik pivoted, took off after the puck, got to it first, and broke in alone on Blazers netminder Edward Coffy (23 saves).  Sokolik snapped a quick shot between between Coffey’s pads for the decisive goal.

The Spartans withstood the final barrage by Bellingham thanks to Pickles, who stopped all 16 Blazers shots in the third period to give him 37 saves in the game.

Edson Aeros vs. Hinton Wildcats (home-and-home series)

The Edson Aeros continue be the alpha dog in the Provincial Division, taking both ends of a home-and-home series from their nearest competition in the division and allowing just a single goal in the process.

Edson 6 @ Hinton 1 – The Hinton Wildcats scored first, just 2:50 into the game, but it was all Edson after that as the Aeros won, 6-1, in Hinton Friday night.

Veacaslav Pinin put the Wildcats out in front early, but goals from Ryley Bast and Sebastian Heden 1:24 apart put Edson up, 2-1, and they never looked back.

Bast added a second goal in the third period and Sebastian Lind had four assists for the Aeros.

Edson netminder Liam Austin made 31 saves in the game, stopping all 15 shots he faced in the second period.

Hinton’s Max Gaudet made 35 saves – 17 in the first period.

Hinton 0 @ Edson 4 – In Edson on Saturday night, Austin posted a shutout, making 15 of his 29 saves in the second period of a 4-0 Aeros win.

It was still a one-goal game going into the third period, but the Aeros cashed in three times in the final frame to put the game away.  Sebastian Heden scored the first two Edson goals.  Emil Johansson and Nathan Gottselig added the others.

Avery Heath made 43 saves – 18 of them in the third period as the Aeros turned up the heat – in a losing effort for the Wildcats.

Long Beach Bombers @ San Diego Sabers

Long Beach 5, San Diego 4 (OT) – The San Diego Sabers had leads of 2-0 and 3-1 over the Long Beach Bombers Saturday night, but the Bombers tied the game with :42 left in regulation, then pulled out a 5-4 road win in overtime.

With the Sabers clinging to a 4-3 lead in the final minute of the game, there was a faceoff in the San Diego zone that allowed the Bombers use a timeout to draw up a play and pull goaltender Domenic Bosetti for the extra attacker.

Long Beach won the draw, the puck was poked back to William Cederstam at the right point and he passed the puck cross-ice to Emil Karlsson who had skated down from the right point and one-timed a shot inside the near post for his second goal of the game, setting up overtime.

In the three-on-three OT, Artem Korolev curled out of the left corner with the puck and feathered a pass to Gennady Malashenko who was standing at the far post.  Malashenko tried to stuff the puck home, but was thwarted, the puck squirted out and Korolev tried to backhand it in but it hit the skate of a Sabers defender.  Malashenko did not miss this time, sweeping the puck into a wide-open net for the game-winning goal.

Aleksis Leskinen scored a pair of goals for San Diego.

Valencia Flyers @ San Diego Sabers

San Diego 7, Valencia 3 – Danylo Moroz scored a hat trick for the Valencia Flyers in San Diego but, by the time he scored his first goal, the Sabers were ahead 6-0.  They won by the final score of 7-3.

Karel Kankovsky (2-2-4) and Ashton Jones each scored twice for the Sabers as they built their six-goal lead.

Aiden Harding, acquired from division rival Ontario two weeks ago, made 27 saves to pick up his first win for the Sabers, stopping all Valencia shooters except for Moroz.

Justin Poirier recorded helpers on all three of Moroz’ goals.

Fresno Monsters @ Ontario Avalanche

Ontario 6, Fresno 3 – The Ontario Avalanche put the finishing touches on a disappointing weekend for the Fresno Monsters, handing them a 6-3 loss at Ontario Center Ice Arena.  Daniel Baranek and Logan Corrigan each scored twice for the Avalanche and Connor Duffy made 27 of his 32 saves in the first two periods.

Ontario built a 3-0 lead in the first period, but Fresno cut the lead to one by the first intermission and then tied it on Stanislav Danaev’s goal at the 12:34 mark of the second period.

Ontario then went on another three-goal run to win 6-3 with Corrigan supplying two of them.

Tyler Mathews made 42 saves for the road-weary Monsters, who were playing their third game against three different division foes in as many days – all away from home.  They return to Northern California with no points to show for their trek.

--- Compiled by Scott Harrington for Harrington Sports Media