Bayside Chatter: March 1

Talk about it

Storm loses first playoff game

The first season of the Silver Bay Mariners and Two Harbors Agate high school hockey team merger came to an abrupt end last week. The new North Shore Storm met Hibbing at the section 7A quarterfinals and lost the game 6-1 to the Bluejackets. The game was only 1-0 in favor of the Bluejackets with two minutes remaining in the first period, despite a huge territorial advantage for Hibbing.

A goal with less than 12 seconds left in the period, plus another less than two minutes into period two, made it 3-0. From that point it was pretty much over.

To make matters worse, the Storm then decided to go to the sin bin and three power play goals later, it was 6-0 and running time at 3:12 of the third. Running time occurs when one team is winning by six or more points—the clock runs during face-offs and time-outs instead of stopping. The Storm avoided a shutout when Lucas Kempffer scored from within his defensive zone with an assist from Jonah Koehler which also shut off running time. Adam Johnson, a UMD recruit, had a hat trick for the Bluejackets. Zach Duresky finished with 41 stops in the Storm nets while Tyler Carlson and A.J. Allison combined for 8 saves for the Bluejackets.

The Storm finished their first season of play with a record of 14-11-1.They graduate only three seniors—captains Austyn Wasko and Brock LeBlanc along with John Burns. In other words, they have a lot of returning players to work with next season. Now it’s just of question of whether these players want to do something in the offseason in order to improve their chances for next season. They have an opportunity, but it will not just be handed to them.

Congratulations to junior Luke Small who broke the 100-point barrier for career points this season. He finished up with 101 points on 56 goals and 45 assists. He led the Storm in scoring this season with 54 points, in goals with 28 and with assists at 26. Mills Johnson was second in points with 35 followed by Tyler Schramm at 28 and Bradley Rowlee at 25. Rowlee and Schramm were second in goals with 14 followed by Jonah Koehler with 12, Johnson with 11 and Austyn Wasko with 10. Johnson was second in assists with 24 followed by Schramm with 14, Koehler with 12, Rowlee and Wasko with 11 and Thomas Anderson with 10. Zach Duresky finished the season with 728 saves in 26 games and had 83 goals against. He had a goals against average of 3.19 and save percentage of .898.

Mike Guzzo retires

Long time Mariner Head Coach Mike Guzzo has stepped down as the girls’ high school hockey coach. Mike spent 28 seasons behind a Mariner bench, 2 seasons as an assistant coach for Rich Coughlin, 21 seasons as head coach of the Mariner boys and 5 seasons as coach of the girls. He took a boys’ team to the state tournament in 1999 and another to the section finals in 2001. He took the girls to the section finals twice in 2009 and 2012. He had a record of 251-251-9 as head coach of the boys and 64-62-7 as coach of the girls. He was named the Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2001 in Section 7A and the state in 1999 in Class A.

Tags: two harbors, silver bay, sports, hockey