Jays skate by Braves

Talk about it

The Jamestown Blue Jays got the New Year started in the right direction on Thursday in their first game of 2011 — but a few bizarre bounces nearly resulted in Mandan’s first victory of the season.

Mandan’s Madison Huber and Brooke Lillis each scored in the second period after a few fortunate hops to give the Braves a 3-2 lead going into the second intermission.

Amber Schaack scored her 15th goal of the season in the second period to tie the game at 1-all just over a minute into the period, but Huber broke the tie 1 minute, 12 seconds later when she tried to center a pass from behind the net but it hit off Jamestown goalie Carissa Finck and ended up in the back of the net.

Jamestown’s Mataya Olson scored a power play goal less than two minutes after Huber’s goal but Lillis scored with 6:41 to go in the period, again from behind the goal line, to give the Braves their third goal of the game — the most goals Mandan has scored in a single game this season.

“Carissa has had better games,” Brad Schaack said. “It just wasn’t her night.”

But then came the third period.

Jamestown scored three goals in the first six minutes of the period, including two that came just six seconds apart as the Blue Jays took over the rest of the way.

Stephanie Kamlitz scored the game-tying goal with 13:37 to go in regulation and Olson scored her second of the game just over two minutes later to give Jamestown’s its first lead of the game.

Schaack scored her second of the game just six seconds after Olson’s go-ahead goal after bolting past the Mandan (0-9-0, 0-9-0) defense immediately after the face-off.

“We can’t wait until the third period like we have been,” Brad Schaack said. “We can’t be doing this against the top teams otherwise we’re going to find ourselves trailing 5-0 or 6-0.”

Schaack recorded the hat trick in the closing minutes when she scored an open-netter to put the Blue Jays up three goals before the final buzzer. The goal was Schaack’s 17th of the season and her 20th point.

“She played well,” said Brad Schaack. “This was a better game than the last two she played.”

Jamestown (3-4-0, 3-5-1) returns home on Saturday to host Dickinson at 3:15 p.m. The Blue Jays host a doubleheader at Wilson Arena on Saturday with the boys immediately following the girls contest.

Jamestown 6, Mandan 3

Jamestown 0 2 4 — 6

Mandan 1 2 0 — 3

Scoring

First period

1, MAN, Teddi Schwagler (Brielle Marman), 8:00.

Second period

2, JHS, Amber Schaack (Steph Kamlitz), 1:08; 2, MAN, Madison Huber (Payton Bryan), 2:20; 4, JHS, Mataya Olson (Brenna Pritchert), 3:50, PP; 5, MAN, Brooke Lillis (unassisted), 11:19.

Third period

6, JHS, Kamlitz (Olson), 3:08; 7, JHS, Olson (Schaack), 5:28; 8, JHS, Schaack (unassisted), 5:34; 9, JHS, Schaack (unassisted), 16:31.

Penalties: Jamestown 3 for 6 minutes; Mandan 5 for 10 minutes.

Goalie saves: Jamestown, Carissa Finck 4-3-6—13. Mandan, Dani Taylor 11-17-6—34

Records: Jamestown 3-4-0, 3-5-1; Mandan 0-9-0, 0-9-0.

Sun sports writer David Griswold can be reached at (701) 952-8462 or by email at dgriswold@jamestownsun.com

Tags: high school, sports, hockey, girls, jays, jamestown