The Magicians beat Brookings Friday night 6-5 in an overtime shootout game played in South Dakota.  They lost a nail biter Saturday 5-4.  Friday win was fueled by the play of the Magicians’ top line.  Wings Marc Michaelis and Lukas Laub centered by Nathan Krusko figured in all three even handed goals.  Defenseman Sam Becker had four assists.  Matt Colford got the winning shootout goal.  Chris Amsden was in the nets for Friday’s win and for Saturday’s lost.  Ryan Sete scored twice for the Blizzard Friday.  Beau Michaud and Zach Glienke each had a goal.  Blizzard goalie Justin Ketola assisted on the Blizzards’ first score Friday.

 The Magicians’ split this weekend keeps them in second place tied with the Minnesota Wilderness.  Both teams trail NAHL’s Midwest Division leader, the Fairbanks Ice Dogs.  The Wilderness has played five games less than Fairbanks (Magicians have three games in hand over the Ice Dogs).  The Ice Dogs beat Coulee Region (Lacrosse WI area) Saturday to sweep a three game series with Chill and hang on to first place; the Wilderness didn’t play this weekend after beating the Magicians 3-0 in a mid-week game.  They will make the Alaskan swing (Kenai River and Fairbanks) over the next two weekends, two tough places to win.

Brookings has 13 Minnesota players on their roster and 3 Swedish players.  The Blizzards leading scorers are Beau Michaud/Cloquet MN (13 points/4 goals) and Zach Glienke/Eagan (8 points/5 goals).  Their defense is anchored by Alex Copa/Ham Lake MN, Joe Nathe/Fergus Falls MN, and TJ Samec/St. Thomas Academy.  The Magicians’ top scorer is Marc Michaelis/Mannhheim GER (14 points/7 goals) and defenseman Sam Becker/Roseau (11 points/11 assists in 9 games).  The Magicians defense revolves around Thomas Delaney/White Bear Lake MN and Becker.  Michaelis just committed to play college hockey for Minnesota State next season.    

The Magician’s Jens Vaughan Ahrens/Wayzata was injured this week.  Ahrens has been the workhorse for the Magicians in the early season and was in the nets for the Magicians loss at Cloquet.  When he returns to the ice is an unknown.  Chris Amsden/St. Peter MN was in the net for both games this weekend.  The Blizzard’s Justin Ketola/Esko MN played Friday; Eric Hancock/North Royalton OH got the win for the Blizzard Saturday.

Saturday’s game summary

The Blizzard hit the ice hard for the first period after taking a tough loss Friday to the Magicians and taking a four hour bus trip to play Saturday’s game.  They put 16 pucks on the net in the first period dominating the game in the first five minutes.  They outshot the Magicians 4-0 and never let the Magic Men out of the Minnesota zone.  Eight minutes into the game, a careless play by the Magicians’ defense resulted in Zach Glienke picking up a loose puck in the right face off.  Glienke cut back into the slot, beat the defense to the top of the crease and backhanded the puck past Amsden to put the Blizzard up 1-0.  A minute later, the Magicians stormed back in their best offensive play of the opening period.  With the puck trapped in the Brookings’ zone, Becker came off the point to take a pass and fed Kelly O’Brien in the slot.  O’Brien beat Hancock to tie the game 1-1.  More Brookings pressure led to another score.  With four minutes left in the period, Blizzard defenseman Garrett Elmore fired from the left blue line beating Amsden low right to put Brookings up 2-1 at the end of the first period.

The Magicians turned their game around in the second period and shifted pressure to the Brookings’ side of the ice.  But a disastrous penalty halfway through the period cost the Magicians a goal and an ejection that forced line changes.  The period opened with the Magicians applying pressure in the first minute on play and drawing a slashing penalty.  A nice crowd of about 700 got uneasy.  Tom Delany changed that.  He picked off the puck in the right side of the neutral zone and turned it into a nice 2-on-1 rush.  Delany slowed his skating stride slightly crossing the blue line to create a favorable passing lane to the breaking Magician now in the lower left crease area.  His play caused Hancock to shift his stance slightly.  Then Delany accelerated to the goal from the right side.  His shot buried the puck in the left side of the net, now opened by Hancock’s attempt to cover right and over shifting right.  It was a great move and a great shot.  And it tied the game 2-2.

The game slowed, but the Magicians had Brookings backing up on the rushes.  Minnesota was starting to take control when a Magician forward trying to win a race for the puck at the Brooking’s end boards simply cross checked the Blizzard defender head first into the boards at high speed.  It was a lazy play and it cost the Magicians a double minor and a player.  The offense started to struggle after that.

The minors were consecutive.  With 2:09 left in the penalty, the Blizzard’s Glienke scored his second goal to be Brookings ahead 3-2 with 8 minutes left in the period.  Two minutes later,  the Magicians’ Tony Uglem/Moorhead buried a puck from the right slot to tie the game 3-3.  With a ninety seconds left in the period, the Blizzard’s Pat Flynn/Farmington MA scored aided by Glienke and Michaud to put the Blizzard up 4-3.

With time running out in the second period, the Magicians’ Lukas Laub put a rebound past Hancock as the buzzer went off.  The second period ended in a 4-4 tie.  The Magicians out shot Brookings 18-7 in the period, survived some adversity, and tied the game as the period ended.  They looked on their way to a win.

In the third period, the Magicians were flat.  A Minnesota defenseman was called on a weird tripping penalty in the first two minutes.  Thirty seconds into the power play, Brookings’ Michaud scored the game winner putting the Blizzard up 5-4.  After that score, the Blizzard went defensive and kept firing the puck into the Magicians zone, content to stop the Magicians at the Blizzard blue line by forcing the Magician puck carriers to boards in neutral ice and cutting off their attempts to hit the short pass off the Blizzard zone’s boards to a breaking wing.  Only in the last minute of play did the Magicians have a good scoring chance.  Hancock took that away.

What is next?

For the next two weekends, the Magicians are at home for a two game series with Aberdeen and for a two game series with Janesville the following weekend.   With Ahrens status unknown, the Magicians have brought back just released goalie Paige Skoog/Duluth MN.  Skoog posted an 8-12 record with NAHL’s Soo team last season.  The Magicians’ forwards have done well in the first part of this season and their defense has been stable.  Aberdeen and Janesville will not be easy wins.  The Wings and the Magicians have identical records (7-5-0) and Janesville (7-4-1) leads the NAHL North Division behind the scoring of Brandon Schultz (16 points/6 goals) and Zach Lavalle/Hill-Murray (15 points/7 goals).

Last season, the Wilderness struggled on their Alaskan swing posting a 2-3 record with the best goalie in the league, Kasimir Kaskisuo, in the nets.  Kaskisuo was in the nets for UMD last night in their 6-2 win over Minnesota State.  Ryan Anderson/Roseau MN and Brock Kautz/Rochester MN are the Wilderness goalies this season. 

Winning three of the four games should put the Magicians in first place at the end of October with a little over a quarter of the NAHL regular season schedule played.  The Saturday, October 25 game, will not only be a big day for pink, but also a big day for the Magicians in the 2014-2015 season.