Blackhawk skaters improve to 13-6 on the season
By Brian Nadeau
The Blackhawk skaters continued their recent hot streak, registering victories against Amery and Altoona last week. The pair of victories moves the team to 13-6 overall, 5-3 in the MBC.
On Tuesday against the Warriors, the Blackhawks got off to a fast start scoring the first four goals of the game and never looked back, winning 10-2. Dominick Laesser got the start in goal for the Hawks, and stopped 17 of the 19 shots he faced.
The Blackhawks outshot the Warriors 40-19, and applied tremendous pressure in the offensive zone all night. Gavin Hessler got the scoring started at 2:49 assisted by Mitchell Hurtgen. Twenty-nine seconds later Hurtgen scored with an assist to Landon Albrightson.
The Blackhawks used their potent power play to net the next two goals, both scored by Mitchell Larson, the first with an assist to Luke Meyer, and the next to Landon Albrightson, putting the score at 4-0.
The Warriors were able to score late in the period and make it 4-1. In the second period the Blackhawks stretched the lead to 7-0. Hessler scored at 0:49 assisted by Meyer, at 2:42 with Meyer scoring unassisted, and then with nineteen seconds left in the period Brandon Connett scored, assisted by Albrightson.
Amery struck first in the third period making the score 7-2. From that point on, the Blackhawks controlled the action and salted the game away.
Meyer answered twenty seconds after the Amery goal with an assist to Hessler. Later in the third, Meyer netted his hat trick on the power play with an unassisted goal.
Connett rounded out the scoring at 14:07 with assists to Hessler and Meyer. Meyer led all players with 6 points on the evening including 3 goals and 3 assists.
Against Altoona, the Railroaders got on the board first at 2:11 of the first period, but the Blackhawks answered with the next two goals, both by Albrightson, to take the lead 2-1 going into the first intermission.
Tucker Nauss assisted on the second goal. The second period saw more of the same from the Hawks as they extended their lead to 5-1 with three unanswered goals.
At 5:13 Meyer scored unassisted on the power play. At 7:55 Albrightson added another power play goal, assisted by Connett.
Rounding out the scoring for the period was Meyer assisted by Connett and Rasmussen at 15:23.
After the break, the Railroaders came out firing, and cut the lead to 5-3 with less than five minutes gone in the third.
The Blackhawks were able to stem the tide and secure the game by scoring the final two goals of the game.
At 5:46 Albrightson scored and was assisted by Meyer and Eli Stoehr. Connett then closed out the scoring with an unassisted goal at 8:27. Bryan Bresina stopped 33 of 36 shots on goal against Altoona and turned in a solid performance under pressure.
Next up for the Hawks is a grudge match against Regis/McDonnell in MBC action Tuesday night where the Hawks will try to even the season series, followed by road games at Barron and Ashland on Friday and Saturday.