by Scott DCamp
Sports Editor

Thief River Falls and Warroad renewed their Section 8A boys hockey rivalry for the first time in the 2018-19 season Thursday night, with the Prowlers taking the first of two scheduled regular season meetings by a score of 3-1.

“Rankings don’t seem to mean a ton when you play each other,” said Thief River Falls Head Coach Tim Bergland. “It was a hard fought game, well played by both teams. It was nice for us to be on the winning end of it.”

Warroad controlled the puck for most of the first period and Thief River Falls had a hard time clearing the puck, let alone setting up an offensive attack. The Prowlers did make the most of their limited scoring opportunities in the first period. The team’s first shot on goal came with 7:21 left to play in the first period, with Kaden Bakken passing the puck out to defenseman Brendan Bushy, who fired the puck past Warroad goalie Max Gausen to put the Prowlers up 1-0.

Warroad appeared to tie the game later in the first period but that goal was overturned when it was ruled that the Warroad skater used his body to score the goal. It was one of two Warroad goals that were overturned during the game.

“The first one was a gray area,” Bergland explained. “It can deflect off a body and count as goal, but it looked like he made a motion to knock it in and they disallowed it.”

Warroad tied the game in the second period on an Owen Meeker goal with 1:35 on the clock, and the Warriors appeared to take the lead earlier in the third on a shot where the puck never actually ended up in the net and instead ended up being caught in the pads of Thief River Falls goalie Noah Rupprecht. Originally ruled a goal, it too was waved off and the game remained tied 1-1.

Thief River Falls took advantage of the reprieve with Bushy scoring his second goal of the night and sixth of the season with 6:23 left to play. Daltyn Quam and Kaden Bakken assisted on the goal.

Tucker Skime scored an empty netter with 40 seconds remaining to round out the scoring for the Prowlers.

Thief River Falls 3, Warroad 1
First period – TRF, Evan Bushy (Kaden Bakken) 9:39.
Second period – Warroad – Owen Meeker (Anthony Foster, Grand Slukynsky) 15:25.
Third period – TRF, Evan Bushy (Daltyn Quam, Kaden Bakken) 10:37; TRF, Tucker Skime (EN) (Hunter Larson, Evan Bushy)
Shots – Warroad 11-10-14 – 35; TRF 2-8-16 – 26.
Power plays – Warroad 0/2; TRF 0/1. Penalties – Warroad 1 (2 minutes); TRF 2 (4 minutes).
Goalie saves – Warroad, Max Gausen 23; TRF, Noah Rupprecht 34.