Bayside Chatter: Feb. 15

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Storm on winning streak

The Storm won their last three games by a combined score of 25-6.They beat the Eveleth-Gilbert Golden Bears 6-1 at Hoyt Lakes. At Lake County Arena they won a pair of lop sided contests as they beat the Moose Lake Rebels 8-2 and the Pine City Dragons 11-3.

At Hoyt Lakes the Storm completed a two game sweep of the Bears with the 6-1 win. They broke open a 1-1 game with five- second period goals and cruised through the game from that point. The Storm was led by Luke Small with a hat trick plus an assist, Mills Johnson with four assists along with the goaltending of Zach Duresky, who stopped 36 of the 37 shots he faced.

The Storm tied it at one, 15:44 into the first period, when a pass across the circles by Kory Buckman was buried by Austyn Wasko. The Storm started taking charge of the game halfway thru the opening period and continued to do so in period two when they broke the puck out well, forechecked hard and continued putting pucks on the net.

Lucas Kempffer scored the game winner with a wrist shot from the blue line that had been set up by Johnson and Tyler Schramm. Small made it 3-1, and Jonah Koehler upped it to 4-1 scoring on a delayed penalty. Small scored the next two to complete his hat trick.

The Storm pumped in five first period goals against the Rebels as they outshot them 31-2 in the period and 66-12 for the game. Brock LeBlanc and Mills Johnson each had two goals in the game. Schramm and Thomas Anderson each added a goal and two assists. Koehler and Nick Johnson scored the other two goals for the Storm. Duresky stopped 10 Rebel shots to pick up the win, giving up two power play goals in the second period. Gage Mohelsky finished up stopping 58 Storm shots.

The Storm also got off to a quick start versus the Dragons as they scored the first four goals of the game. Small and Bradley Rowlee led the offense. Small finished with 4 goals and 3 assists and Rowlee had a pair of goals to go with three assists. Mike Nordean lit the red light twice with the other Storm goals going to Schramm, Mills Johnson and Kempffer. Tony Pitzen had two unassisted goals for the Dragons. Duresky finished with 13 stops as the Storm put 42 shots on goal.

The three victories upped the Storm's overall record to 13-9-1 with two regular season games remaining. They were 5-5 versus section 7A opponents. It's pretty much certain at this time, that the Storm will be the No.6 seed and will be travel to Hibbing, the No. 3 seed, for a section quarter-final game on Feb. 21.

Mariner girls finish season

The Mariner girls’ season came to an end at Hermantown with a 4-0 section 7A quarter-final loss to the Proctor/Hermantown Mirage. The Mirage got the game winner with 2:12 left in period one, from Justina Lindberg. The Mirage got another goal in the second and two more in the third. The Mariner's couldn't capitalize on their quality scoring chances. The Mirage outshot the Mariners 33-15. Cassie Swanson stopped 29 Mirage shots in her last game in the Mariner nets. Kylie Hommerding had the shutout for the Mirage.

The Mariners finished the season with a record of 7-18-1 and they had 13 one goal games. To wrap up their season in a nutshell, it was their inability to bury the puck or finish around the net when all they needed was a goal or two. They played very well as a team defensively and had solid goaltending. Playing their last game for the Mariners were Rebecca Dilley and Nicole Jaeger at defense, forwards Katelyn DeRoise and Rachel Dilley, and goaltender Cassie Swanson.

Tags: silver bay, two harbors, sports, hockey