Both D12 and D10 select teams went unbeaten in preliminary round play and were placed in the Red Pool.  D10 was the favorite and last night they proved they were the stronger team.  Led by Austen Long/Spring Lake Park, D10 took an early lead, built it to a 3-1 lead at halftime and won 5-2.

Austen Long’s line (Cody Mclean/Centennial and Ryan Johnson/Totino-Grace) did not hit the ice until the third shift in the first period, but when they did they put on a quite show that boxed D12 in the D12 zone.  The D10 pressure did not end until Riley Turfte scored at the 19 minute mark to put D10 up 1-0.

D12’s Zach DeBoom/Hibbing scored 5 minutes later to tie the game 1-1.  With 5 minutes left in the first half, D10’s Matt Hellickson/Rogers scored on a penalty shot to put D10 ahead 2-1.  Hellickson skated to the edge of the crease and stopped and then poked the puck through the goalie’s lower left skate area to score.  D10’s Ryan Johnson added a goal to end the first half with D10 leading 3-1.

Grant Boege scored in the opening minutes of the second half to put D10 up 4-1.  Halfway through the period, D2’s DeBoom scored his second goal on a penalty shot to cut the lead to 4-2.  Two minutes later, Johnson scored his second goal of the game to put D10 up 5-2 and end the scoring.

Austen Long, Ryan Johnson, and Cody Mclean all had a good game for D10.  Their play, especially Long’s, was outstanding on the ice last night.  For D12, Zach DeBoom had a good game.

This game was a wild scoring game in the first half with D5 taking a 5-4 lead into halftime.  The second half was the Dow/Nelson show with Luke Dow driving the D11 offense and goalie Kyle Nelson shuttng down the D5 offense.  Together the two handed D11 an 8-5 win. 

Dow had a great game Friday night.  He officially had his hand in 5 of the 8 goals scored by D16, but by YHH count it should have been six.

Luke Dow scored the opening goal from slot 10 seconds into the game to put D11 up 1-0.  Five minutes later, D11’s James Lindberg scored from the slot to put D11 up 2-0.

That made D5 mad, they scored four straight goals in the next 10 minutes to take a 4-2 lead.  Keenan Lund/Sartell scored first by beating the D11 defense going wide left.  He put the defender on his hip, pivoted off the defender to launch himself across the top of the crease getting the goalie down for an easy right side goal.  Connor Beltz/River Lakes got the second goal on a weak side play and Kyle Graf/Hutchinson scored on a penalty shot to put D15 up 3-2.  STMA’s Brandon Berning picked up a loose puck in the left faceoff circle and pounded the puck through a sprawling goalie to score the fourth goal.

D5 led 4-2, but then D11’s Bryston Butkiewicz/Moose Lake scored on a breakaway to cut the lead to 4-3.  A minute later, Dylan Johnson/Cloquet scored on penalty shot to tie the game 4-4.  With two minutes left in the half, D5’s Isaac Kobienia came down the right side goal line and drilled a high angled shot into the net to put D5 up at halftime 5-4.

In the second half, D11’s Dow went to work.  He set up Matt Valure/Hermantown on a nice weak side play to tie the game 5-5, he scored off a melee on the right side to put D11 ahead 6-5, he set up Connor Johnson’s score to put D11 up 7-5 and scored an empty netter with a minute left to end the scoring and the game 8-5.

For all that Dow did, the middle 10 minutes of the second half was some great hockey considering the teams had been together only a few weeks before the Festival opened.

Besides Dow, Matt Valure had a nice game and Kyle Nelson/Prior Lake shut down D5 in the second half.  Kyle Graf/Hutchinson, Nick Johnson/MAML, and Isaac Kobenia/Willmar all had a good game for D5.

This game figured to be a close game and it was.  The score was tied 5-5 with just under two minutes to go in the second half, when D15 pulled an interference penalty.  The “interfered” player, Vladimere Olson/Roseau scored the penalty shot to give D16 a 6-5 win.

D16 jumped out to 2-0 lead in the first 6 minutes of the game on goals by Bauer Brown and Lucas Magnusson both from East Grand Forks.  D15’s Jack Fahrendorf /Moorhead scored a minute later to cut the lead to 2-1.  D16’s Brandon Lund scored on a penalty shot with just under 10 minutes left in the half and D15’s Wyatt Wittenburg/Alexandria retaliated with a penalty shot to end the first half scoring with D16 leading 3-2.

The second half was a wide open, transitional game.  The play went from one end to the other end with each team getting shots at the net.  It started with a bang, D15’s Fahrendorf scored from the slot when the Gold goalie made a nice pass to him.  The goal was unassisted.  That tied the game 3-3, but that didn’t stop the Gold forwards.  D16’s Braden Shea scored thirty seconds later to put the Gold up 4-3.

Three minutes later, D15 tie the game again 4-4 on a goal by Jack Steffi.  The two teams battled for the next 10 minutes until D15’s Fahrendorf scored again to put D15 up 5-4.  The lead lasted four minutes until a big rebound off  a hard shot ended up on D16’s defenseman Cole Hartje’s stick.  His shot rocketed into the net and tied the game setting up Olson’s winning penalty shot.

D15’s Jack Fahrendorf, Kiefer Miller, and Eric Stout played well for the Maroon; Cole Hartje, Bauer Brown, and Bryden Stoskopf played well for the Gold.

Games contiue Saturday at Bramaer with nine games being played; the key game will likely be the game between D2 and D10 matching two very good players, D10′s Austen Long and D2′s Joey Anderson.