Mariners boys' hockey team starts season strong

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After opening the season with a 7-2 loss in St.Paul to Como Park, the Mariners boy’s hockey team came back to win their next two contests. First they upset the Rebels 4-3 at Moose Lake last Thursday. They followed that up with 13-0 win over Pine City/Rush City in their home opener Saturday.

At Moose Lake the Mariners came out and skated hard from start to finish, played disciplined, and followed the game plan. The Mariners were able to stay out of the penalty box for much of the game and had seven power plays to one for the Rebels.

Shane Billings led the Mariners offensively as he scored their first three goals, two of them via power plays. He put the Mariners up 2-0 nine minutes into the game with Bradley Rowlee assisting on the first  and Jordan Fralich on number two. After Tyler Cisar cut the lead to 2-1 with a breakaway five seconds after the second goal, Billings completed his hat trick with 30 seconds left in the opening period to make it 3-1 Silver Bay after one.

Chris Gassert scored the only goal of the second period and thus it was 3-2 in favor of the Mariners with 17 minutes to play. Thomas Anderson scored what proved to be the game winner for the Mariners when he found the upper part of the far side of the net from a very tough angle, unassisted almost halfway thru the period.

The Rebels cut the lead back to one when Tyler Cisar set up Josh Cisar with 3:38 left to play. The Mariners kept their composure, even while the puck was in their defensive zone the final minute of play. The Rebels had pulled their goalie for an extra attacker, but it only made it five-on-five due to a Rebel penalty. Alex Murray finished the game with 27 saves for the Mariners and Gage Mohelsky had 29 saves for the Rebels.

The Mariners next game was considerably easier as they led 5-0 after one, 9-0 after two and allowed no goals into their own net while scoring four more in the third.

Sophomore Luke Small scored eight points via five goals and three assists to lead the Mariner offensive attack. Anderson contributed two goals and four assists. Billings added two goals along with Jonah Koehler to go with scores from Tynan Clark and Chad Smuk. Murray combined with Zack Duresky for 29 saves to shut out the Dragons. The Mariners put 43 shots on the Dragon nets.

The Mariners faced Ashland yesterday. Results of that game were not available at press time. They play again at 7 p.m. today in a home game against Kittson County, and at 3 p.m. tomorrow against Hayward.

Tags: two harbors, silver bay, mariners, schools