Jays offense explodes against Hazen/Beulah

Talk about it

A scoreless first period resulted in a 1-0 Hazen/Beulah lead early in the second period, but that’s when the Blue Jay boys hockey team found the gas pedal in Hazen on Saturday.

“It kick-started us,” Jamestown senior forward Alex Williams said. “It got us to actually start picking it up and getting down to business and start putting the puck in the net.”

The Blue Jays did just that, rifling off eight unanswered goals — three in the second and five more in the third — as Jamestown rallied to its first win of the season with a convincing 8-1 victory over the North Stars.

“We turned the puck over in our own end and the kids could have dipped their heads, but they held their heads high and stepped up and went after it after that,” said JHS coach Matt Stockert, of Braden Dschaak’s goal which gave the North Stars a 1-0 lead just under 6 minutes into the second. “I don’t know if it was a wake-up call, but they knew it was time to go play hockey.”

The Blue Jay avalanche started with back-to-back goals from junior forward Jake Stilwell, which handed Jamestown a lead they’d never let go of 12 minutes into the second. Stilwell posted 4 goals and 2 assists in the game for 6 total points on the night.

The Blue Jays kept Hazen/Beulah’s Colin Johnson busy all game long, as they sent 48 shots at the sophomore goalkeeper. Johnson was able to stop 40 of them.

“That was kind of the key going in, to play tight defense and get lots of shots on net. It was kind of (knotted) at zero to zero after the first period, but I thought we played better coming out of the gate than we did against Grafton (last Tuesday) and we wore Hazen/Beulah down,” Stockert said. The Blue Jays fell 7-0 in their season-opener at home against Grafton/Park River.

“We were running at them pretty hard in the first period, and as a result it kind of took its toll on them. Five minutes into the second we established our game plan of going to the net and taking care of some offensive opportunities.”

Senior Tygh Yatskis posted 23 saves in the victory for the Jays, stopping 13 shots in the second and just 3 shots on goal in the final period of play.

“It was nice to rebound off a tough loss,” Williams said. “Once we got going (at Hazen), our confidence went up and everything started clicking and we all started working as a team. It’s a win that feels good.”

Senior defenseman Dakotah Spitzer and junior defenseman Brandon Stahlhut each posted a goal and an assist for the Jays in the victory. Junior forwards Jakobi Lux and Jack Jenson also found the back of the net for Jamestown.

“It was a good overall win, in a not-so-friendly building in Hazen,” Stockert said. “It’s never an easy task heading up to Hazen and trying to win a hockey game.”

The Blue Jays improved to 1-1 on the season and are now 1-0 in West Region play. Jamestown will now have all week to prepare for a pair of games this weekend.

Jamestown travels to face Bottineau in Rugby on Friday, before facing the Magicians in Minot on Saturday.

“We need to come out right away, set the pace and not play what they want us to play,” Williams said.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” Stockert added. “We need a good week of practice so we can take care of business this weekend.”

Jamestown 8, Hazen/Beulah 1

Jamestown 0 3 5 — 8

Hazen/Beulah 0 1 0 — 1

Scoring

First period

No scoring.

Second period

1, H/B, Braden Dschaak (Hunter Obrigewitch, Logan Behm), 5:56; 2, JHS, Jake Stilwel (Dakotah Spitzer), 10:18; 3, JHS, Stilwell (unassisted), 11:58; 4, JHS, Brandon Stahlhut (unassisted), 15:36.

Third period

5, JHS, Stilwell (Matt Grounds), 3:19; 6, JHS, Jakobi Lux (Stilwell, Stahlhut), 6:34; 7, JHS, Spitzer (Stilwell, Brady Hogarth), 10:24; 8, JHS, Stilwell (unassisted), 12:16; 9, JHS, Jack Jenson (Austin Rene), 12:56.

Goaltender saves: JHS, Tygh Yatskis 7-13-3—23; B/H, Colin Johnson 10-13-17—40.

Records: Jamestown 1-1, 1-0 West Region; Hazen/Beulah 0-2, 0-2 West Region.

Sun sports writer Michael Savaloja can be reached at (701) 952-8461 or by email at msavaloja@jamestownsun.com

Tags: jays, hockey, sports