This game was a heartbreaker for the Magicians.  The newly minted Magicians played a veteran Wichita Falls team that skated nine returnees from last season’s team.  With the game tied 2-2 with a minute left in the overtime, the Wildcats’ Kyle Bauman/Apopka, FL scored the winning goal unassisted.

Bauman’s winner came after the Magicians had dominated the Wichita Falls team in latter part of the third period and in the 4-0n-4, 5 minute overtime, period.

To add salt to the Magician’s loss, the winning rush came after a Magician 2-on-1 rush just missed scoring the winner.  Magician’s wing Denis Shevyrin/Germany saw his shot hit both posts, carom to the far side where the puck was picked up in stride by a breaking Wildcat forward.  The Wildcats’ counter rush set up the winning goal.

It was an overtime that should never have happened.  Halfway through the game, the Magician’s Will Johnson broke from behind the net and beat the Falls’ goalie Chase Munroe/Naperville, IL with a shot through the 5-hole.  Munroe fell with his pads beyond the goal line.  Before the refs could re-act, a Falls’ defense crashed the net driving the net and Johnson into the Falls’ goalie triggering a “scrum”.

It was a play that fooled the refs.  They lost sight of the score and focused on separating players.

It cost the Magicians what would have been the winning goal.

The first period opened with an early Wichita goal.  The Wildcats’ Rudy Junda/Denver, CO scored to put Wichita up 1-0 at the 2 minute mark.  Evan Okeley/Carmel, IN and Tyler Ledford/El Dorado Hills, CA  got the assists.

Wichita Falls kept the pressure on the Magicians for the next 10 minutes.  They dumped the puck low and had their defense pinching low at the points to maintain possession in the Minnesota zone.  Halfway through the first, the Wildcats scored again.

Their second goal came on a Wildcat power play.  A Wildcat shot from the blue line left resulted in the puck bouncing of Magicians’ goalie Bryan Nies/Grand Forks, ND.  The puck hit Nies’ right leg pad and rebounded into the right slot to Wichita’s Bauman.  Bauman one timed the puck past a diving Nies to give Wichita a 2-0 lead.  Sam Piazza/Darien, IL got the assist.

With 3 minutes left in the first, the game flow started to shift to favor the Magician’s.  The Wildcats were beginning to slow slightly and the Magicians forwards were starting to mount man advantage rushes on the Falls’ net.  The first period ended 2-0, Wichita ahead.

The second period was a high tempo game for the first 5 minutes, but after missing a couple off sides calls and loosing track of a player on a penalty call, it was apparent that Refs were showing early season rust.

With a little more than 5 minutes gone in the second period, the Magicians’ Mario Bianchi/Bloomington, MN beat the Wildcats defense to a loose puck just inside the Wildcats’ defense and soloed into the net. He scored from the top of the crease lifting the puck into the upper left corner to cut the lead to 2-1.

That goal ignited the Magicians.

The Magicians were flying.  For the next 5 minutes, they constantly pressured the Falls in the Wichita zone; then came the goal the refs missed.
The Magicians’ Will Johnson/Santa Barbara, CA came from behind the Falls’ net and shot the puck through the Fall’s goalie’s 5-hole.  The 6’3” Munroe dropped to his knees with the puck under the pads near his skates and his knee’s on the goal line.
One ref stared at the goalie, but before he could make a call, Johnson was driven into the goalie by the Wildcats’ defense.  It knocked Munroe further back and knocked the net loose.  Johnson was buried in a small avalanche of Wildcats.  The Wichita defense continued to pound the Magicians’ forward into the crease and drive the goalie and the net back.

The Refs blew their whistles, but really blew the call.  All three focused on the melee and separating players.  All three forgot to make the call even though the puck was in the net under the goalies leg pads.  A Wildcat defense man eventually slid the puck out when the refs were huddled along the boards.

It was the key sequence in the game.

To their credit, the Magicians came back.  A minute later, the Magicians’ Tony Uglem/Moorhead, MN broke free in the left face off and buried the puck in the upper left corner for everyone to see.  That tied the game 2-2.  Jordan Stejskal/Grand Rapids, MN got the assist.

Later in the period, on a Magician breakaway, the Falls goalie made a diving attempt to block the shot.  He locked his left foot against the post and pushed off so hard that he knocked the net a foot off its’ post.  The whistle blew before the breakaway was completed.  No delay of game was called.

The second period ended with the Magicians consistently beating the Wildcats, especially in the short game on the breakouts.  The second period ended with game tied 2-2.

The third period opened with the Magicians on a power play.  Their two minute advantage lasted 20 seconds until a Magician was called for hooking.  Skating 4-on-4, the Magicians were dominating the play holding the puck in the Falls’ zone.  The 4-on-4 lasted 38 seconds.  The Magicians drew a roughing and had to hang on through three different player disadvantages.

They survived a 4-on-3 for a minute, a 5-on-3 for 30 seconds and a 5-on-4 for thirty seconds.  But the Magicians survived only 4 seconds of the 5-on-5.  They gave up the Fall’s third goal on a screen shot by Jake Townsend/Highlands, CO from the center blue line.  Ledford and Okeley got the assists.

The Magicians kept on rolling after giving up the third goal and killing the penalties.  They didn’t slow down.   Both teams had chances, but Minnesota had more and better shots at tying the score.  The Magicians continued to build pressure on the Falls’ defense over the next 12 minutes before scoring.

Will Johnson got the tying goal.  Coming from behind the net, Johnson took a rebound in the low slot and one-timed a shot at the goalie.  Munroe made the stop, but couldn’t control the rebound and it bounced back to a now falling Johnson.  He put the second shot into the net to tie the score 3-3.

In the final minutes of the third period and in the first four minutes of the overtime, the Magicians continued to pressure the Falls’ net until that final 2-on-1 rush that resulted in hitting the pipes.  The Magicians’ Denis Shevyrin took the shot from the left face off.  The shot was partially deflected by the goalie and hit the left post low, traveled in a upward angle across the crease and hit the right post mid-height.  It bounced hard and fast to the lower right face off circle where Bauman and company picked it up skating full speed.  Bauman ended up scoring unassisted from the lower left crease to win the game 4-3.

The Magicians continue to improve.  It showed the next day with their 3-2 win over Michigan.  After a scoreless first period, Michigan’s Cody Lichtenvoort/Algonquin, IL scored a power play goal to put the Warriors up 1-0 late in the second period.

In the third period, Colin Hernon/Bloomington, MN and Nick and Derick Kuchera from Eagan, MN went to work, scoring all three goals.  New Magician, Sam Wolfe/Eagan, MN, assisted on the winning goal.  The Warriors were beaten by a Magician version of the Wildcats.

Nick Kuchera scored first two minutes into the third.  Colin Hernon got the assist.  Three minutes later, Nick Kuchera returned the favor and set up Colin Hernon on a shorthanded goal to put the Magicians up 2-1.

Fifteen minutes were left in the game.  The Magician were starting to roll.

Two minutes after losing the lead, the Warriors’ TJ Stuntz/Round Rock, TX scored to tie the game 2-2.  Jake Hopfner/East Pointe, MI and Luke Dmytro got the assists.  The Magicians didn’t stop skating, they turned the game tempo up.

As they did against Wichita Falls, the Magicians constantly pressured the Warrior defense over the next 10 minutes.  It did not matter what line was on the ice, the puck was mostly in the Warrior zone.  Late in the game, the pressure worked.

The tiring Warrior defense pulled a hooking penalty with the less than two minutes left in the game.  That set up the Kurchera’s for the winning goal.  This time Derick Kuchera got the score.  His game winner beat the goalie high right.  It was scored with 30 seconds left on the clock.  Magicians won 3-2.

Action continues at the NAHL showcase Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Eighty teams are playing and the hockey is non-stop on eight rinks.  The Upper Midwest High School Elites start play Friday night.

The Magician’s return to action at the Showcase Friday.  They play Midwest division rival, the Wenatchee Wild, in their only regular season game at 8:15 PM.  The Magicians conclude action at the Showcase with a Saturday afternoon game against Odessa.