Blizzard hockey: Alexandria falls or the first time this season

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The Alexandria Blizzard tasted defeat for the first time this past weekend as Granite City and Minnesota saddled the Blizzard with back-to-back losses on Friday and Saturday night.

Alexandria’s Tom Schmidt and teammate Nate Mettenburg helped Alexandria play to a 2-2 tie against Minnesota early in the third period. The Aces responded with two unanswered goals from Alex Yde and Chase Myers-Beck the rest of the way to secure a 4-2 win.

Both offenses generated opportunities as the Blizzard held a 39-34 edge in shots. Chase Wilson took the loss in net for Alexandria, stopping 31 of those shots, while Minnesota’s Michael Stumpf got the win with 37 saves.

The defending NA3HL champions used two early goals to build a lead that Granite City wouldn’t relinquish a night earlier. The Lumberjacks used a shorthanded goal from Drew Otto and a power play goal from Eric Miller in the first period to take a 2-0 lead.

Alexandria responded with the only goal of the second period when Joe Anderson found the back of the net off an assist from Garrett Skinner. That’s how things went into the third before Granite City’s Drew Otto gave his team a cushion just 39 seconds into the period. That turned out to be the game winner as Tanner Duffney scored on a power play for Alexandria in the closing minutes to make it a 3-2 final.

The Blizzard will have two more road games this weekend before playing in front of a home crowd for the first time at the Runestone Community Center on October 13. Alexandria will be at Twin City tonight, Friday, and at North Iowa on Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. start time. Granite City then comes to town for the Blizzard’s home opener next Saturday at 7 p.m.

GAME SUMMARY

ALEXANDRIA 1 0 1 – 2

MINNESOTA 1 1 2 – 4

SHOTS – Alexandria – 14, 9, 16 – 39; Minnesota – 7, 19, 9 – 35

SCORING – FIRST PERIOD – Alexandria – Tom Schmidt (Tanner Duffney, Spencer Peratalo), 1:39; Minnesota – Patrick Kegley (Jordan Forschen, Andre Pison), 12:06

SECOND PERIOD – Andre Pison (Patrick Kegley, Mark Dryer), 15:00

THIRD PERIOD – Alexandria – Nate Mettenburg (Bryce Mitzel, Danny Pelzer), 2:52; Minnesota – Alex Yde (unassisted), 13:03; Minnesota – Chase Myers-Beck (Patrick Kegley, Andrew Pison), 16:34

GOALTENDING – Alexandria – Chase Wilson – L, 31 saves, 35 shots; Minnesota – Michael Stumpf – W, 37 saves, 39 shots

ALEXANDRIA 0 1 1 – 2

GRANITE CITY 2 0 1 – 3

SHOTS – Alexandria – 11, 8, 11 – 30; Granite City – 7, 15, 4 – 26

SCORING – FIRST PERIOD – Granite City – Drew Otto (SH) (unassisted), 6:00; Granite City – Eric Miller (PP) (Colten Thiel, Aidan Verbeke), 13:49

SECOND PERIOD – Alexandria – Joe Anderson (Garrett Skinner), 6:46

THIRD PERIOD – Granite City – Drew Otto (Blayne Ellson, Aidan Verbeke), 0:39; Alexandria – Tanner Duffney (PP) (Ian Eckland, Spencer Peratalo), 16:11

GOALTENDING – Alexandria – Kyle Miller – L, 23 saves, 26 shots; Granite City – Scott Murray – W, 28 saves, 30 shots

Tags: alexandria sports, sports, blizzard, hockey, na3hl