by Scott DCamp
Sports Editor
The Thief River Falls boys hockey team went 2-0 at the Ralph Engelstad Arena Hockey Classic Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 27-28, with a pair of dominant wins over Lake of the Woods, 8-1 Wednesday night, and Bismarck, 14-1, Thursday afternoon.
“When we started moving our feet and moving the puck, we started to play very well,” said Thief River Falls Head Coach Tim Bergland. “Playing fast is something that we’ve stressed this year. It’s more of a mental approach and not getting complacent on the ice. And I thought we did that better and better over these two games.”
Seniors Gabe Winter and Cooper Anderson recorded hat tricks as the Prowlers opened the two-day event with an 8-1 win over Lake of the Woods Wednesday night.
Winter scored a pair of goals in the opening period, sandwiched around Anderson’s first goal. Rylan Leake and Brayden Spears assisted on Winter’s first goal, which came just 3:17 into the first period. Anderson scored an unassisted marker at 12:08 of the first period, and Winter’s second goal came at 14:45 with Spears assisting.
Winter completed the hat trick with the Prowlers’ first goal of the second period, which came at 4:41, with Spears and Parker Lundgren assisting.
The Bears scored their only goal of the night off the stick of Alexander Beckel with 2:43 remaining before the second intermission. Brant Baron and Dax LaPlante assisted on the play.
The Prowlers added two more goals in the final two and a half minutes of the second period. Jaxon Hams scored his first goal of the season with 2:14 remaining in the second, and Spencer Anderson made the score 6-1 after scoring with 37 seconds remaining.
Spears was credited with assists on both goals, giving him five for the night. Also earning assists were Jameson Hurst on Hams’ goal, and Tucker Howe on Spencer Anderson’s goal.
Cooper Anderson rounded out the scoring with a pair of third-period goals to complete a hat trick of his own. Anderson’s second goal of the night came at 10:22 with an unassisted goal, and he ended the scoring with 1:31 remaining in the third period, with assists from Howe and Jace Erickson.
The Prowlers were back in action Thursday afternoon with an even more dominant 14-1 win over Bismarck.
The win over the Demons gives the Prowlers a 6-3-1 record. The Prowlers were back in action Tuesday on the REA against Crookston. On Thursday, the Prowlers travel to East Grand Forks to face the defending section runner-up Green Wave.
“Gabe Winter had a very nice game with the hat-trick and his first three goals of the year against Lake of the woods,” Bergland said. “Once we got going, I felt everybody started playing better. Max had some big nights with points, Cooper as well, but some of the secondary scoring was nice to see with Hams and AJ Rogalla getting a goal was nice. So overall, it was nice to put the puck in the net for a change. But we have a big week this week with two section games.”
Scoring
1 2 3 T
Thief River Falls 0 0 0 0
East Grand Forks 0 0 0 0
First period – TRF, Gabe Winter (power play) (Rylan Leake, Brayden Spears) 3:17; TRF, Cooper Anderson 12:08; TRF, Gabe Winter (Brayden Spears) 14:45.
Second period – TRF, Gabe Winter (Parker Lundgren, Brayden Spears) 4:41; LOW, Alexander Beckel (Brant Baron, Dax Laplante) 14:17; TRF, Jaxon Hams (Brayden Spears, Jameson Hurst) 14:46; TRF, Spencer Anderson (Brayden Spears, Tucker Howe) 16:23.
Third period – TRF, Cooper Anderson 10:22; TRF, Cooper Anderson (Tucker Howe, Jace Erickson) 15:29.
No other statistics were available as of presstime Tuesday.
Scoring
1 2 3 T
Bismarck – – – 1
Thief River Falls – – – 14
No other statistics were available as of presstime Tuesday
Mariucci
Conf. overall pts
Moorhead 2-0-0 4-8-1 4
Warroad 2-0-0 10-2-0 4
Bemidji 2-2-0 4-7-0 4
EGF 1-2-0 7-5-0 2
Roseau 1-2-0 8-3-0 2
Thief River Falls 1-3-0 6-3-1 2
Crookston 0-1-0 6-3-0 0
Results
■ Friday, Dec. 22 – Warroad 4, East Grand Forks 3.
■ Tuesday, Dec. 26 – Roseau 7, Spring Lake Park 2.
■ Wednesday, Dec. 27 – Crookston 5, Bismarck 0; Grand Forks Central 3, Warroad 2; Thief River Falls 8, Lake of the Woods 1; Roseau 7, Minneapolis 6; Edina 3, Moorhead 1.
■ Thursday, Dec. 28 – Crookston 3, Lake of the Woods 2; Roseau 7, Minot 1; Eden Prairie 9, Moorhead 2; Hermantown 5, East Grand Forks 1; Thief River Falls 14, Bismarck 1; St. Cloud Cathedral 5, Bemidji 2; Warroad 3, Grand Forks Red River 1.
■ Friday, Dec. 29 – Bemidji 5, St. Coud 3, Monticello 2, Bemidji 1.