February 23, 2017

JUNIOR STEELHEADS TAKE CARE OF TAHOE, HEAD FOR THE MEDFORD MADHOUSE

Last weekend at Manchester Ice, the Idaho Junior Steelheads got the series they anticipated from the Tahoe Icemen, improved as they are from last year, outscoring the visitors by a combined 22-5 over the three games.

Winning 9-1 on Friday, 5-2 on Saturday, and 8-2 on Sunday, Coach John Olver’s crew had 13 different players score goals, 19 different players earn assists, and 12 get at least one of each.  Even goaltender Tyler Matthews (West Chester, Ohio), who won Friday’s and Sunday’s contests, got an assist on Sunday.

The Northwest Division-leading Steelies now turn their attention to the second place Southern Oregon Spartans as they travel to Medford for three games this weekend.  Friday and Saturday games are scheduled for 7:30 PM Pacific time.  Sunday’s start will be at 1:30 PST.

Idaho’s record is now 35 wins, 4 regulation losses, and 4 overtime losses for 74 points.  The Spartans enter the fray with a 31-10-4 mark, good for 66 points.  The Junior Steelheads need only two wins in regulation over the weekend to clinch first place.

Olver said, “We’ll be playing a team that is a respected division rival and who still has a chance move past us.  Their record at home is impressive.  We have to face their potent offense.

“Everybody in our organization knows this is one of those series you mark down at the first of the year knowing it will be important.”

Back in the middle of January, when the two teams faced off in McCall, the Junior Steelheads shut down the Spartans offense led by the Seto brothers (Surrey, B.C.) , holding Chris Seto to just one goal and two assists, and Cameron Seto to one assist.  Chris Seto has a league-leading 59 goals and 103 points on the season to date, but has been overtaken by both Oskar Gullström (Nynashamn, Sweden) and Peter Cicmanec (Prievidza, Slovakia) of the Wichita Junior Thunder for the league points lead.

The Tahoe team came to McCall last weekend hoping for some standings points to help them in their three-way battle with the Bellingham Blazers and Seattle Totems for the fifth and sixth playoff spots in the Northwest Division.  The three defeats at the hands of the Junior Steelheads left them with an identical 26 points in 46 games as Seattle, while Bellingham has 27 points, but in 49 games.  The Blazers must wait until March 10-12 to play their final three games of the regular season.  Tahoe and the Totems play each other this weekend in South Lake Tahoe.

Friday February 17

IDAHO 9, TAHOE 1

The Junior Steelheads Juggernaut started early Friday night in front of 300 fans.  2:52 into the game, 10 seconds after Tyler Berndt (Fond du Lac, Wisc.) was called for tripping, Idaho’s Lance Herning (St. Charles, Ill.) scored an unassisted shorthanded goal

Before the first period ended, Matt Kindred (Garden City, Mich.), Berndt, and Jacob Hedencrona (Stockholm, Sweden) all had lit the lamp for a 4-0 home team lead.

The wait was a bit longer for the first of Idaho’s four second period goals.  Chris Hunt (Albany, N.Y.) notched a power play goal 8:25 in.

The Icemen then scored what was to be their only goal of the game.  Ivan Radetskiy (Kiev, Ukraine) starting a productive weekend with a tally at 10:20.

Three Junior Steelhead goals within three minutes of each other enhanced the second period for the home team.  Defenseman Jack York (Boise) had a power play goal, Dylan Rallis (Minneapolis, Minn.) a plain ordinary goal, and Alex Piliya (Vitebsk, Belarus) another shorty.

Rei Kikuchi (Tomakomai, Japan) scored the game’s only third period goal, 2:49 into the frame, and the final was 9-1.

Matthews had to make only 12 saves to get his 11th win – four in the first period, five in the second, four again in the third.

Artur Pavliukov (Klaipida, Lithuania), making his first appearance for Tahoe since coming from the El Paso Rhinos in a trade, turned aside 35 of 44 Idaho shots

Saturday, February 18

IDAHO 5, TAHOE 2

The Icemen, with first-year head coach Mickey Lang (Reno, Nev.) having made some adjustments, held the Junior Steelheads in a scoreless tie for over half the game before 600 fans.

11 seconds after the second period mid-point, Hunt earned his second goal of the weekend.  At 11:29, Fredrik Lindqvist (Norrtälje, Sweden) got credit for a goal by being the closest Junior Steelhead to the net when Tahoe’s Danil Alekseichuk (Kiev, Ukraine) inadvertently sent the puck into his own team’s cage.  Kikuchi followed with a goal at 15:41 to give Idaho a 3-0 lead at the end of two.

After the first 13:05 of the third was scoreless, Kikuchi doubled his pleasure with a second successive goal.

Hunter Lester (Boise), inching closer to becoming the Junior Steelheads all-time leading goal scorer, made it 5-0 with a power play tally at 14:17.

Idaho then survived two shorthanded goals by Radetskiy, making the final 8-2.

Sergei Pysarenko saved 17 of the 19 shots he faced, getting his 19th win of the season and continuing to establish his league-leading goalie stats, a 1.50 goals against average and .942 save percentage.

Pavliukov made 26 saves on the 31 shots Idaho took in the contest.

Sunday, February 19

IDAHO 8, TAHOE 2

For two periods Sunday before a crowd of 300, Tahoe’s hopes of salvaging points in the series were on track to be fulfilled.

The Junior Steelheads scored first, as defenseman Brandon VanOphem  took his best shot of the year, blasting the puck past Pavliukov from mid-zone.  VanOphem’s three biggest fans – father, mother, and sister – were in the stands visiting from Washington Township, Mich.

Tahoe tied the match at 1-1 on a goal by a player not named Radetskiy.  Colton Langowski (Anchorage, Alaska) scored at 13:12.

It was the same scenario in the second period.  York put a shot through the Tahoe goalie’s legs to notch a goal on his 20th birthday.

Radetskiy tied the game at two with a little under three minutes to go in the period.

The Olver scoring machine then decimated Tahoe’s hopes with a Herning goal from the side of the net just 42 seconds into the third period.

At 8:54 Herning put in a rebound of a York shot, and at 10:06, Kindred’s shorthanded goal, making it 5-2, got Pavliukov so frustrated he threw his goalie stick and was asked to leave the ice.

His replacement, Luke Cohen (Syosset, N.Y.) suffered three Idaho goals in the next five minutes.

Jonathan Karlsson (Karlskrona, Sweden) got official credit for a goal on which he collaborated with Hunt.

Kindred poked in the rebound of a VanOphem shot at 15:24, and nine seconds later, Kindred finished the scoring for the weekend to make it 8-2.

Matthews again faced single digit Tahoe shots in each period and came away with 14 saves and his 12th win.

The Tahoe goalie tandem combined to make 43 saves.

Following the Junior Steelheads trip the Medford Madhouse this weekend, the team will go back to the coast for three against the Vancouver Rangers March 3-5 before coming home to host the Ogden Mustangs March 10-12.

Submitted by Dick Dorfman  -  Jr. Steelheads Play-by-Play