Eagles outlast Hounds
A clash of two perennial powers met in Eden Prairie Friday night. Both teams in a rebuilding year with several top players headed to high school careers. Eden Prairie Bantams will be without Casey Mittelstadt who was the YHH Bantam Player of the Year and his classmates Nolan Sullivan and Nick Lieverman. Duluth lost a lot of star power from last year's Bantam AA team, including 3 second years this year Luke LaMaster, Ian Mageau, and Garrett Worth to the varsity and a first year Ryder Donovan to boot.
Friday's match up was a great early season test for both teams. The Eagles got on the board first 15 seconds after a Hound player was called for Roughing. Mike Lindell scored on a pass from Spencer Rudrud who would hit the scoresheet three times Friday (so much for first year Bantam blues for Rudrud). A few minutes later when second year Jake Olson would score the first of his two to make it 2-0 after 1.
In the second period, the Eagles scored right away to take a 3-0 and take the air out of the Hounds. Spencer Rudrud scored on a feed from fellow first year Sam Wilhite. After teams traded scoring chance and five penalties in the second period, Jake Olson scored shorthanded to put the game out of reach late in the second.
The Eagles would add two more in the third (Wilhite and Ryan Lesko) to make the final 6-0 in favor of Eden Prairie.