January 19, 2017

IDAHO JUNIOR STEELHEADS DOMINATE SOUTHERN OREGON IN 3-GAME SWEEP

With an impressive three-game sweep on home ice last weekend, the Idaho Junior Steelheads marked their territory as first place in the Northwest Division and served notice to the vanquished Southern Oregon Spartans to “catch us if you can” by the end of the regular season.

Idaho defeated the Spartans by scores of 5-2, 3-0, and 4-2, starting very early in the series and following through with great defense, great goaltending by Sergei Pysarenko (Odessa, Ukraine) in all three games, and enough offense to send the Spartans back to Medford to await a three game re-match at The Madhouse February 24-26.

With all six points in the standings from the sweep, the Junior Steelheads now lead the second-place Spartans by five points (55 to 50) and still have three games in hand. Coach John Olver’s crew remains tied with the Ogden Mustangs for the second best percentage in the league (.887), just behind the Long Beach Bombers (.891). Ogden will visit McCall for a three-game showdown February 10-12.

Meanwhile, THIS coming weekend, the Seattle Totems make their annual regular season visit to McCall for games against Idaho at 7 PM Friday and Saturday and 2 PM Sunday. Seattle split with Vancouver last weekend, with both scores 6-2. The Totems are in a playoff position in fifth place in the division with 22 points in 31 games.

Olver is very pleased. “We played really well over the weekend. We played a really good game against El Paso in the Shootout and finished up strong against Ontario. We took a step forward.

“Now, back from the break, the team is motivated to improve. We had a good week of practice. In the series everybody did things which could be seen on the scoreboard and had an impact on the games.

“Our forwards backchecked very well and helped the defense out. We held them to 54 shots in three games, an average of 18 per game. They’re a pretty high powered offense, with the Seto brothers and other players. Chris Seto (Surrey, B.C.) is a dangerous player and it shows how well our defense played when he gets only 2 PPA in the series. With 5-on-5 skating, we shut him down. We matched Davidsson and Hoffman against him Friday and Sunday, and Apfelbaums in place of Hoffman on Saturday.

“We played 60 minutes all three games. We’re really starting to become a team. Our goal is to make “team” the star.

“I’m encouraged about this group. This weekend was a test, and we passed the test. We have some really tough series coming up – at Salt Lake City, at home against Ogden, and at Southern Oregon.

“This was really encouraging.”

IDAHO 5, SOUTHERN OREGON 2

It didn’t take long to get the party started Friday night before 175 fans at Manchester Ice.

1:13 into the game, Alex Piliya (Vitebsk, Belarus) tipped in a centering pass from Matt Kindred (Garden City, Mich.) to give the Junior Steelheads the early lead they lacked in the four games at the Western States Shootout.

At the 13:04 mark, Jacob Heza (Sternberk, Czech Republic) sent a long pass up the ice to Lance Herning (St. Charles, Ill.), who fed Fredrik Lindqvist (Norrtälje, Sweden) for the score to make it 2-0.

Two minutes later, Spartan goaltender Mark Vlahovic (Ljubljana, Slovenia), who also played the entire series, couldn’t control a rebound, and Hunter Lester (Boise) made him pay with the third goal of the period.

With 1:07 remaining, defenseman Jonathan Davidsson (Hönö, Sweden) blasted a drive from the blue line past Vlahovic to cap a 4-0 outburst.

Southern Oregon got on the board with a power play goal 5:43 into the second period, then cut the lead to 4-2 with a shorthanded goal 7:25 into the third period.

The Junior Steelheads capped off the scoring on a fluky goal by Kindred with 2:27 left in the game. The puck flipped up in the air and went into the net off the back of Spartan Cameron Seto (Surrey, B. C.)

Pysarenko had to make only 11 saves to earn the win, as the dominant Idaho defense held the Spartans to just five shots on goal in the first period, five again in the second, and only three in the third.

The Junior Steelheads rattled off 35 shots at Vlahovic.

IDAHO 3, SOUTHERN OREGON 0

Pysarenko was even more stellar on Saturday night, saving all 19 Spartans shots for his fourth shutout and 14th win of the year. The Junior Steelheads increased their shot production to 40, with three going in the net.

Defenseman Kyrylo Zhovnir (Kiev, Ukraine) notched his first goal as a Junior Steelhead 7:45 into the game, skating in from the blue line to ram home the rebound from a Rei Kikuchi (Tomakomai, Japan) shot. The rest of the first period and the entire second stanza were scoreless.

Idaho controlled the puck in the Southern Oregon zone at the beginning of the third period, and at 2:28, Herning blasted a shot from mid-zone that found twine. Then, with 2:46 left in the contest, just seconds after the Spartans had pulled goalie Vlahovic in favor of an extra attacker, Herning picked up up a loose puck and scored into the empty net from the right blue line.

The Junior Steelheads had picked up where they left off the night before, holding the Spartans to just three first period shots. The visitors doubled that in the second frame, then tried Pysarenko 10 times in the third.

The game marked the return of defenseman Jack York (Boise) to the Junior Steelheads. A veteran contributor to the last two Thorne Cup championships, York had started this season with the Kemptville 73’s of the Central Canada Hockey League in the province of Ontario. He had a goal and four assists in 37 games.

Olver said, “Jack is glad to be back with the Junior Steelheads, and we are certainly glad to have him back.”

IDAHO 4, SOUTHERN OREGON 2

The Spartans, who had come into the weekend ahead of Idaho in points, 50 to 49, got the first goal on Sunday, scoring on a power play 5:10 into the contest. The Junior Steelheads tied the game 12:24 in, with Piliya skating in close to the net and beating Vlahovic to his (right) glove side.

In the second period it was virtually all-Idaho, as Kindred accepted a pass from Lester at the doorstep and poked in the puck at 4:18. At 5:31, Heza skated through traffic into the middle and got the puck to Oleg Losev (Moscow, Russia), who achieved his eighth goal of the season to make it 3-1.

Southern Oregon was held to just five shots in the second period as they battled to salvage a game in the series.

10:12 into the third period, Tyler Berndt (Fond du Lac, Wisc.) got a wrap-around goal, shoving the puck past Vlahovic’s left skate from the side of the net to wrap up Idaho’s scoring.

With just five minutes left, the Spartans finally got a goal from one of the Seto brothers, but it took a collision involving three Junior Steelheads to free up the puck, which Chris Seto collected, then skated into the Idaho zone before wristing a shot from mid-zone past Pysarenko.

The standout Junior Steelhead goalie made 20 saves in this sweep-clinching contest to get his 15th win. His goals against average is now 1.64, second to Vladimir Cibulka (Bratislava, Slovakia) of Ogden’s 1.63. (Fans can watch those two battle in McCall February 10-12)

Vlahovic had 35 saves for the Spartans, who had high hopes coming into McCall but will have to wait until the end of February to gain revenge.

Submitted by Dick Dorfman