The River Lakes Stars could not stop the Moorhead Spuds' Thomas Carey, who tallied a hat trick in an 8-2 win.

Carey got on the scoresheet 51 seconds into the first period. He then added goals at 10:09 into the second and at 14:51 into the third.

The win gave Moorhead a 1-0 lead in the best of one series.

The Spuds stifled River Lakes' power play, and did not give up a single goal while down a man. Moorhead kept the Stars' goalie busy throughout the game, and Chris Skluzacek made 47 saves on 55 shots.

Moorhead also got points from Tony Uglem, who also grabbed one goal and one assist and Nicholas Uglem, who also had two goals and two assists. Moorhead also got a goal from Leif Johnson as well. Other players who recorded assists for Moorhead were Alex Mehnert, who had three and Aaron Herdt, Jayden Masseth, and Will Borgen, who contributed one a piece.

River Lakes' penalty kill unit could not stop the Spuds' power play, which converted on three of four opportunities.

The Stars were helped by Mitchell Feldhege, who finished with one goal. Feldhege scored 11:22 into the second period to make the score 4-2 Moorhead. Nike Bergeson assisted on the tally. Stefan Tomovic also scored for River Lakes. In addition, River Lakes received assists from Jake Herges and Reed Pfannenstein, who each chipped in one.

Moorhead's Jacob Dittmer stopped 14 shots out of the 16 that he faced. The Spuds incurred 12 minutes in penalty time with six minors. River Lakes incurred 12 minutes in penalty time with six minors.