Minot edges JHS at state
The Blue Jays goal was to get to Saturday. Friday, they nearly made it happen. Jamestown scored first and last, but a second-period lapse allowed a brief spurt by Minot and the Magi held on for a 3-2 win in loser-out play at the state tournament in Grand Forks on Friday afternoon.By: By Dave Selvig, The Jamestown Sun, The Jamestown Sun
The Blue Jays goal was to get to Saturday. Friday, they nearly made it happen.
Jamestown scored first and last, but a second-period lapse allowed a brief spurt by Minot and the Magi held on for a 3-2 win in loser-out play at the state tournament in Grand Forks on Friday afternoon.
On paper it appeared to be a tough matchup for the Blue Jays, having lost to Minot twice by the combined scores of 11-0. But it was different Friday and the Blue Jays nearly kept their season alive.
“We didn’t bury some prime scoring opportunities we had. That was really the difference,” JHS coach Matt Stockert said. “Overall, though, it was a good effort by our kids. We didn’t want to let Minot just have another game. We wanted to play on Saturday, too. We were close, just couldn’t quite finish it.”
Sophomore Nick Stockert made it 1-0 JHS with a first-period goal at the 5:03 mark on assists from junior Tommy Bruns and freshman Austin Rene.
It stayed that way until early in the second when Minot got a quick burst of offense from Kelly Jersey, who scored twice in the span of 34 seconds in the opening minute of the frame.
The Magi took a 3-1 lead late in the period when Matt Flom got a rare breakaway on a Minot penalty and buried a short-handed goal with just 45 seconds left in the second period.
Rene made it really interesting when he pulled the Jays within 3-2 with 12 minutes still to play in the third. The Blue Jays had several good chances to score, but Minot goalie Breydan Effertz made several quality stops, including a beauty on Alex Williams.
“Their kid made some nice saves,” Stockert said. I thought our kids did a really nice job to stay aggressive, keep attacking them. We just couldn’t quite tie it up.”
Still, it was an encouraging season for the Blue Jays, who qualified for state for the second time in three years. They return a nice nucleus next season, but Stockert noted the positive impact seniors Jake Stilwell, Dakotah Spitzer, Alex Williams, Matt Grounds, Anthony Cook, Ben Walz and Tygh Yatskis made on this year’s squad.
“You even go back to last year, those seniors did a really good job in terms of leadership, then the seniors we had this year carried that over and really set the tone for us,” Stockert said. “I feel really good about the direction we’re going as a program. We want to keep putting ourselves in position to where we’re playing big games at WDA and then here at state.
“Big picture-wise with what this team did, especially late here in the season, I think these kids can feel really good about what they were able to accomplish. It was a really good group.”
State hockey tournament
At Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks
Loser-out play
Minot 3, Jamestown 2
Minot 0 3 0 — 3
Jamestown 1 0 1 — 2
Scoring summary
First period
1, JHS, Nick Stockert (Tommy Bruns, Austin Rene), 5:03.
Second period
2, Minot, Kelly Jersey (Matt Flom, Hayden Schwartz), :13; 3, Minot, Jersey (Schwarz), :47; 4, Minot, Matt Flom (Jersey), SH, 16:15.
Third period
5, JHS, Rene (Stockert), 5:00.
Goalie saves: Minot, Breydan Effertz 5-8-7—18 saves. JHS, Ben Walz 10-0-x—12 saves; Tygh Yatskis x-7-6—13 saves.
Penalties: Minot 6 for 15 minutes. JHS 7 for 14 minutes.
Records: Minot 16-9-1; Jamestown 13-13.
Sun sports editor Dave Selvig can be reached at (701)
952-8460 or by e-mail at dselvig@jamestownsun.com
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