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JAMESTOWN — Jamestown High School head hockey coach Matt Stockert has coined the West Region as the Wild, Wild West for a reason.
Broken sticks, major penalties and potential injuries are just some of those reasons.
The Blue Jays earned their second win of the season Thursday night with a 4-1 victory over Bismarck High. With the win, Jamestown moved to 2-2-0 in the overall standings. The Jays will be back in action on Saturday at Williston. The Jays and Coyotes are scheduled to face off at 3:30 p.m.
"We didn't do too bad," Stockert said. "We got better today and that's what matters."
The energy was good on both sides of the ice to start the first. Both teams battled for possession and worked to stay physical through each shift, Blue Jay netminder Andrew Walz faced nine shots in the opening period while Bismarck's keep, Carson Erickson stared down 12 shots.
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The main difference?
Erickson let slide two goals.
The action began at the 11:26 mark when Gavin Gerhardt pushed the puck through some traffic and queued up a shot that escaped the stick of Bismarck goalie, Carson Erickson and settled squarely in the back of the goal. Gerhardt is the Jays' leading goal scorer with six and is second in points with nine.
Gerhardt followed up the score with an assist of sophomore Nate Walz who buried one behind Erickson to put the Jays up 2-0. The score was Walz's third of the year and lone one of the night as he went down with a potential shoulder injury at the end of the third period.
Gerhardt would only remain on the ice until mid-way through the second which was long enough to see Max Mehus net another score for the Blue Jays to make it a 3-0 game. Gerhardt was assessed a major with about 7:35 left in the second and was disqualified from play.
The major put the Jays at a 5-4 disadvantage and that's when the Blue Jays' scoring depth really came in clutch.
Tyson Jorissen won the faceoff and blazing up the ice, the junior went one-on-one with Erickson. Jorissen won that battle to give his team another goal worth of breathing room.
"That's good," Stockert said of the Jays' varied scoring. "We need to start seeing stuff like that to instill some confidence in some kids and get some confidence in lines and line combinations and all of that."
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Another score didn't fix the root of the Blue Jays' problem though.
BHS outshot the Jays 15-4 in the second period.
"Too many penalties as far as I am concerned," Stockert said. "That's something that had to get fixed yesterday. We can't be up 3-0 and give them back-to-back-to-back powerplays like that. They are going to start peppering the net like they did and they outshot us a lot to a little in that second period. We shouldn't have to make those saves."
Carsyn Sebastian ruined Wazl's clean sheet, knocking one in 70 seconds into the third. Jamestown managed to shut down the Demons' five other chances in the third.
"Overall I thought we played a pretty good hockey game from start to finish," Stockert said. "We pieced it together and found a way to win and finished BHS off tonight the way I thought we should.
"We've got to continue to show progress every shift and every game and that's a lot better lesson to learn now instead of in February at the West Region Tournament," he said.
Jamestown 4, Bismarck High 1
BHS 0 0 1 — 1
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JHS 2 2 0 — 4
Scoring
First period: 1. JHS, Gavin Gerhardt (Nate Walz, Brooks Roaldson), 11:26; 2. JHS, Nate Walz (Gerhardt), 13:04.
Second period: 3. JHS, Max Mehus, (Owen Struble), 6:20; 4. JHS, Tyson Jorissen (unassisted), 9:36
Third period: 5. BHS, Carsyn Sebastian (Reece Nagel), 1:10
Goalkeeper saves: BHS, Carson Erickson 12-4-11—27; Jamestown, Andrew Walz 9-15-6—30
Penalties: BHS 2 for 4 minutes; Jamestown 5 for 13 minutes
