The Alexandria Blizzard scored four third-period goals last Friday night to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 5-3 win over Twin City at the Runestone Community Center.
The Blizzard’s only goal through two periods came off the stick of Alexandria’s Garrett Skinner in the second period. Skinner was coming off a week where he scored eight points and was named the NA3HL’s 1st star of the week. He didn’t skip a beat against the Steel as he added two more points to up his season total to 22.
That assist from Skinner came early in the third period as Alexandria started to make its comeback. Joe Anderson connected almost three and a half minutes into the final frame to make it a 3-2 game. That opened up the floodgates for the Blizzard as Cody Bartkowicz, Ian Ecklund and Chayce Coenen added goals to give Alexandria its 11th win of the season.
Ecklund’s goal was deflating for Twin City not only because it broke a 3-3 tie but because it came shorthanded. The goal for Ecklund was his 12th of the season and his 23rd point in 18 games. That is a team best in both categories. Ecklund and Anderson both finished with three points against Twin City.
The Blizzard has now won five of its last six games with the only loss coming against defending champion Granite City by one goal. That has moved Alexandria to within five points of second-place North Iowa in the West Division. Granite City has a seven-point lead in the division with a 17-3-1 record overall.
Three of the seven goals between the Blizzard and the Granite City Lumberjacks that were scored Wednesday night came on power plays, with two of those going against Alexandria in a 4-3 loss.
Granite City jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Ian Ecklund found the net on a power play in the second period, with assists going to Garrett Skinner and Austin Rudnick.
The Lumberjacks erased that goal as time was running out in the second, giving them a 3-1 lead heading in to the third period.
In the third, Alexandria’s Danny Pelzer scored with a little more than two minutes gone on assists from Tanner Duffney and Ricky Seidel, but once again the Lumberjacks negated that goal as Matt Petersen scored on a power play, giving Granite City a 4-2 lead.
The Blizzard were able to add another goal at 16:34 as Tanner Duffney connected off assists from Spencer Peratalo and Ricky Siedel, but couldn’t even the contest.
Kyle Miller stopped 20 of 24 shots on goal for the Blizzard in the loss.
Both teams had seven power play opportunities, with Alexandria scoring once and Granite City twice.
GRANITE CITY 4, ALEXANDRIA 3
ALEXANDRIA 0 1 2 — 3
GRANITE CITY 1 2 1 — 4
FIRST PERIOD
GC – Zac Sikich (Drew Otto, Aidan Verbeke) 8:26.
SECOND PERIOD
GC – Drew Otto, pp (Aidan Verbeke) 6:18, ALEX – Ian Ecklund, pp (Garrett Skinner, Austin Rudnick) 8:42, GC – Nick Turbitt (DJ Vold, Nathan Kohlenhoefer) 19:39.
THIRD PERIOD
ALEX – Danny Pelzer (Tanner Duffney, Ricky Seidel) 2:27, GC – Matt Petersen, pp (Aidan Verbeke, Drew Otto) 15:32, ALEX – Tanner Duffney (Spencer Peratalo, Ricky Siedel) 16:43.
SHOTS ON GOAL – Alexandria 10-11-7—28, Granite City 5-11-8—24.
GOALIE SAVES – Kyle Miller, Alex, 20; Scott Murray, Granite City, 25.
PENALTIES – Alexandria 25 minutes on 11 infractions, Granite City 23 minutes on 10 infractions.
1ST STAR – Matt Petersen, GC. 2ND STAR – Drew Otto, GC. 3RD STAR – Aidan Verbeke, GC.
GAME SUMMARY
TWIN CITY 1 2 0 – 3
ALEXANDRIA 0 1 4 – 5
SHOTS – Twin City – 8, 8, 9 – 25; Alexandria – 14, 8, 16 – 38
SCORING – FIRST PERIOD – Twin City – Kegan Storjohann (Isaac Hale), 8:41
SECOND PERIOD – Alexandria – Skinner (Anderson, Ecklund), 5:38; Twin City – Nick Cerrato (Tony Buchal), 6:17; Twin City – Trey Hughes (Calvin Miska, Nicholas Schreiner), 8:56
THIRD PERIOD – Alexandria – Anderson (Skinner, Ecklund), 3:25; Alexandria – Bartkowicz (Austin Rudnick, Spencer Peratalo), 5:02; Alexandria – Ecklund (shorthanded) (Anderson, Will Becker), 9:44; Alexandria – Coenen (empty net) (Danny Pelzer, Ritchie Brown), 18:42
GOALTENDING – Twin City – Sawyer Marshall – L, 33 saves, 37 shots faced; Alexandria – Chase Wilson – W, 22 saves, 25 shots faced
Tags: alexandria sports, sports, blizzard, hockey, na3hl
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