Mariners shut out Agates in rivalry hockey game

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In the big rivalry game of the winter sports season, the Silver Bay boys’ hockey team defeated Two Harbors in a shutout game.

The first period was scoreless with a 17-10 shot advantage for the Mariners. However, the Agates had the better scoring opportunities. The Mariners came out in period two and had two outstanding scoring chances in the first two minutes of the period, but couldn’t hit an open net. After Luke Small gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead, Murray stopped his second Agate breakaway to retain the lead for the Mariners. One minute later, Fralich scored the first of three power play goals for the Mariners with an assist from Rowlee to make it 2-0 after two. Fralich made it 3-0 less than a minute into the final period of play, once again with the aid of Rowlee. After Tynan Clark set up Rowlee for a goal, Fralich set up Shane Billings with the game’s final score at 8:38 of the period for a final score of 5-0.

Alex Murray stopped all 26 shots he faced from the Two Harbors Agates to pick up his second shutout of the season for the Silver Bay Mariners. Jordan Fralich scored two goals and added an assist to go with a goal and two assists from Bradley Rowlee to lead the Mariners offensively. Micky Smith stopped 48 of the 53 Mariner shots he faced.

Earlier, the Mariners had three close games at home during the Silver Bay Blue Line Club/AmericInn hockey tournament, but were only able to come out on top in one of them. They opened with an exciting 2-1 victory over Legacy Christian Academy, fell 7-4 to Bagley/Fosston, and then fell in overtime to Robbinsdale Cooper 4-3.

The Mariners struck first against Legacy with a Luke Small goal set up by Jonah Koehler. Legacy tied it up before the period ended on a rocket by Ike Larson during a Lion power play. The Mariners held a 19-8 shot advantage after two periods, but the Lions changed things by outshooting the Mariners 14-5 in the third. Despite that, the Mariners scored the only goal of the period as Zack Duresky stopped Legacy cold. Shane Billings put home an assist from Chad Smuk to win it for the Bay. Duresky finished with 21 saves and Tanner Balk had 22 for Legacy.

The Mariners trailed 1-0 after one versus Bagley on a Sean LaVine goal and led 4-2 after two. Luke Small scored twice to go with goals from Blake LeBlanc and Thomas Anderson to put the Mariners ahead. The Mariners failed to come out inspired in the final period and it cost them as Bagley scored five unanswered goals. Two of these came shorthanded and one was into an empty net. Cole Gubrud and Aaron Leintz each scored twice for the Flyers. The star of the game was Flyer goaltender Grant Cardinal playing in his first game of the season. He finished with 53 saves including 26 in period two. Duresky had 19 saves for the Mariners and Alex Murray had 8.

The Mariners fell behind Cooper 3-0 after one period as they failed to show up early in this contest. After Alex Stager scored 42 seconds into the game, Jay Tonsager and Dustin Schultz scored goals 36 seconds apart to make it 3-0 as the Hawks outshot Silver Bay 15-5 in period one. While period two proved to be scoreless with a 17-4 shot advantage for Cooper, the Mariners did show signs of life. Billings put the Mariners on the board with a shorthanded goal with 5:59 left to play. With 2:20 left to play, Bradley Rowlee and Anderson set up Billings for a power play goal. The Mariners pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker with just over a minute left to play and tied it up with one tenth of a second left to play when Koehler put the puck home with the aid of Rowlee and Small. It didn’t prove to be a happy ending however as Sam Morgen ended it in favor of Cooper with an unassisted goal. Murray finished the game with 36 saves in the Mariner nets and Angel Hillstrom had 16 stops for Cooper.

Tags: two harbors, silver bay, schools