Bayside Chatter: Dec. 28

• North Shore hockey

Junior Mills Johnson lines up for a shot during the North Shore Storm’s loss against Hibbing last week. Photo by Sandy Wuorio

Talk about it

The North Shore boys’ hockey team finally has a mascot. The board approved a list of names and students, staff and coaches voted. The options were: Voyageurs, Steelheads, Lakers, Moose, Stars, Storm, Freeze, Timber Pirates or Norsemen.

The winner of the vote was Storm, which will be approved by the school board at its next meeting.

In the first major test of its young season, the Storm fell 4-1 to the Hibbing Bluejackets at Two Harbors. The result was much closer than most people expected as the Storm couldn't match the speed of the Bluejackets. However, they played well together and had a strong goaltender in Zach Duresky who made 40 saves in the Storm net. Colten Perkins had two goals and an assist to lead Hibbing.

The Storm led 1-0 after one period of play when Mike Nordean rushed in from the point and sent home a rebound set up by Tyler Schramm and Kyle Rasmussen. This was in spite of being outshot 16-4 in the period.

The Bluejackets struck for three in the second period. Derek Abrahamson and Perkins scored twice to make it 3-1 after two periods. In the final period of play, the Storm missed out twice on quality scoring chances while on a power play, which could have tied things up. Instead, a shot off the pipe went the other way for an unassisted shorthanded goal from Cole Schafer and a 4-1 game.

Two days later the Storm defeated Hayward 4-2 in a rematch that 5 days ago saw the Hurricanes prevail by a score of 7-2.Luke Small scored twice and Thomas Anderson added three points to go along with another strong performance from Duresky in the nets.

Hayward came out of the gate smoking and made it look like the home team had the bus legs. The Hurricanes outshot the Storm 12-2 in the opening period and led 1-0 on a shorthanded goal from Paul Dancyzk. Small tied it up for the Storm at 4:26 of the second, only to see the Hurricanes respond with a power play goal from David Knapp to restore their one goal lead. Before the period ended, Mills Johnson stole the puck deep in the Storm offensive zone and went in alone to tie it up with 57 seconds left in the period.

The third period belonged to the Storm as they outshot the Hurricanes by a 2-1 margin and found a tenacity that served them well. Small put the Storm ahead with an assist from Chad Smuk when he rifled it into the net from the top of the circles. Anderson scored the game clincher with 48 seconds remaining in the contest when he released a shot just before he reached the goal line in the corner. Duresky finished the game with 22 stops and Jon Cadotte made 9 saves in the Hurricane nets.

The girls won their second game of the season with a very strong team effort and fine defensive play, which is their trademark this season. They took a 1-0 lead 40 seconds into the final period with a power play goal from Rebecca Dilley set up by Anna Carman and Nicole Jaeger. This proved to be the only goal of the game as Cassie Swanson stopped all 26 shots she faced and Kat Jensen stopped 26 shots for the Lightning .

The Mariners continuously got the puck deep, fore-checked hard and played very well in front of their own net as the third period was one of their best this season.

The girls play Hutchinson this evening at Blaine in day 2 of the red division of the Schwan Cup. Tomorrow's opponent will be determined by the results of the first day's games.

The Storm play Legacy Christian tonight at 7:30 p.m. in day 2 of the AmericInn/Silver Bay Blue Line Club holiday tournament in Silver Bay. On paper these are the best two teams in the tournament; this could possibly be the title contest.

Yesterday, the Storm played Bagley and tomorrow they play Robbinsdale Cooper at 5 p.m.

The young team (4-12) defeated the old team (80-3) 8-3 in the annual alumni hockey game last Saturday. Deven VanHouse and Nate Breden had hat tricks for the winners.

Tags: silver bay, two harbors, sports, hockey