Alexandria boys' hockey: Cardinals dominate Willmar 12-0

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The Alexandria boys’ hockey team played its most dominant game of the early season in a 12-0 win over Willmar at the Runestone Community Center last Thursday.

The last time these two teams met, Willmar stunned Alexandria by coming back for a 4-3 win in the opening round of the Section 6A playoffs. There would be no such drama on this night as the home Cardinals scored four goals in the first period and added five in the second to move to 2-0-1 in conference play.

“It was a dominating performance right from the drop of the puck,” head coach Scott Woods said. “The puck movement and team play were fun to watch. It sometimes takes until January before puck movement looks that good. There were a lot of guys on the stat sheet.”

Sophomore forward Ryan Marciniak was the catalyst with his first career varsity hat trick. He scored two of Alexandria’s goals in the first period to help his team jump out on Willmar. Alec Wosepka and Chris Leary added their first varsity goals as well.

Eleven players finished with at least one point. Jack Wensman and Tom Schmidt had four apiece, while Kevin Finley added three assists. That made life a lot easier for Ben Allen in net. The senior goaltender got the shutout with 27 saves as Alexandria outshot Willmar 42-27 on the night.

Alexandria moved to 3-2-1 overall and had two more games on the schedule before a seven-day break over Christmas. The Cardinals were set to welcome in St. Cloud Apollo last night, Tuesday, before going to Sauk Rapids to take on the Storm on Thursday.

GAME STATISTICS

WILLMAR 0 0 0 – 0

ALEXANDRIA 4 5 3 – 12

SHOTS – Willmar – 5, 11, 11 – 27; Alexandria – 23, 11, 8 – 42

SCORING – FIRST PERIOD – Alexandria – Matt Resch (Tom Schmidt, Jack Wensman), 0:36; Alexandria – Ryan Marciniak (Kevin Finley, Alec Wosepka), 4:55; Alexandria – Toby Helgeson (Wensman, Schmidt), 14:07; Alexandria – Marciniak (Patrick Leary), 15:05

SECOND PERIOD – Alexandria – Schmidt (Christian Canavati, Andrew Rentschler), 4:01; Alexandria – Wensman (unassisted), 5:20; Alexandria – C. Leary (Rentschler, Resch), 6:59; Alexandria – P. Leary (Finley), 10:44; Alexandria – Wosepka (unassisted), 10:51

THIRD PERIOD – Alexandria – Parker Revering (PPG) (Helgeson), 1:46; Alexandria – Marciniak (PPG) (Canavati), 8:30; Alexandria – Schmidt (PPG) (Finley, Wensman), 10:30

GOALTENDING – Willmar – Jacob Anderson – 14 saves, 22 shots, 35:55; Joe Benson – L, 16 saves, 20 shots, 15:05; Alexandria – Ben Allen – 27 saves, 27 shots

Tags: alexandria sports, sports, cardinals, boys, hockey