Prep hockey roundup: Willmar gets off to a good start

Tom Elliott, Joe Brown, Michael Lyne, West Central Tribune, Willmar, Minn.
·5 min read

Nov. 30—WAHPETON, N.D. — The Willmar boys hockey team opened the season with a 5-1 victory over Breckenridge/Wahpeton Tuesday at the Ella Stern and Harry Stern Sports Arena.

"We jumped on 'em early," Willmar head coach Jamie Hagen said. "We got a quick goal and kept going.

"The guys didn't stop moving the whole game and kept playing hard for three periods."

Willmar outshot the Blades 65-5.

"To put that many shots on net is a pretty good deal," Hagen said. "They (the Blades) are a better skating team than we faced last year and we beat them 13-0 last year."

The Cardinals got goals from Cullen Gregory, Eli Van Buren, Ethan Stark, Izac Duran and Trent Larson.

For Duran, a senior forward, it was his first varsity goal. He was a defenseman last season.

"Defensively, we played pretty well, really put the pressure on 'em," Hagen said.

Willmar plays Hutchinson at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Willmar Civic Center Arena in a boys-girls doubleheader. Willmar's girls face Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato at about 7:15 p.m.

Willmar (1-0-0) 4 1 0 — 5

Breckenridge/Wah. (0-2-0) 1 0 0 — 1

FIRST PERIOD — (1) W: Cullen Gregory (Arron Fischer, Eli Van Buren) 2:02 ... (2) W: Van Buren (Fischer, Ethan Stark) 7:57 ... (3) W: Stark (Dylan Staska) 11:23 ... (4) BW: Michael Peterson (Isaiah Bruechert) 15:26 ... (5) W: Izac Duran (Stark) 16:30.

SECOND PERIOD — (6) W: Trent Larson (Van Buren, Gabe LaRue) 14:07.

THIRD PERIOD — No scoring.

GOALIE SAVES/SHOTS — Willmar: Braxton Heid 4/5 ... Breckenridge/Wah.: Andrew Withuski 60/65.

Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato opened the season by beating host Princeton.

The Dragons rallied from an early 2-0 deficit. Braden Olson scored three goals for Litchfield/D-C and Rhett Niemela, Braden Olson, Carson Tormanen and Carson Wendorff added single goals for the Dragons.

Litchfield/D-C plays Monticello at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Litchfield Civic Arena.

Litchfield/D-C (1-0-0) 1 2 4 — 7

Princeton (0-1-0) 2 0 1 — 3

FIRST PERIOD — (1) P: Timothy Donnay (unassisted), 1:05 ... (2) P: Brody Kok (Donnay), 10:40 PP ... (3) LDC: Rhett Niemela (Travis Halonen, Carson Wendorff), 16:39.

SECOND PERIOD — (4) LDC: Braden Olson (unassisted), 10:02 ... (5) LDC: Carson Tormanen (Jaxon Gustafson), 12:14.

THIRD PERIOD — (6) P: Jacob Patnode (Alexander Miller, Jake Baumann), 5:19 ... (7) LDC: Olson (Calvin Jones), 9:11 PP ... (8) LDC: Jones (Olson), 9:37 ... (9) LDC: Olson (Jones), 14:29 ... (10) LDC: Wendorff (unassisted), 15:23.

GOALIE SAVES/SHOTS — Litchfield/D-C: Halonen 24/27 ... Princeton:James Koecher 27/34.

Gunner Olson made 24 saves in goal to lead Wadena-Deer Creek to the victory over the Morris/Benson Area Storm at the Wadena Ice Arena.

Connor Davis, Evan Lunde, Aron Sutherland, Cole Woods and Jaeger Pettit scored goals for Wadena-DC.

MBA faces Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Litchfield Civic Arena.

Morris/Benson (1-2-0) 0 0 0 — 0

Wadena-DC (2-1-0) 3 2 1 — 6

FIRST PERIOD — (1) WDC: Connor Davis (Aron Sutherland), 5:17 ... (2) WDC: Evan Lunde (Sutherland, Cole Woods), 10:49 PP ... (3) WDC: Sutherland (Woods), 13:01.

SECOND PERIOD — (4) WDC: Woods (MJ Lunde), 2:33 PP ... (5) WDC: Jaeger Pettit (Dalton Moyer), 3:18.

THIRD PERIOD — (6) WDC: Pettit (Davis, Peyton Mithun), 11:53.

GOALIE SAVES/SHOTS — Morris/Benson: Christopher Danielson 42/48 ... Wadena-DC: Gunner Olson 24/24.

Jalyssa and Brayley VanDenberg both had two goals for Sartell/Sauk Rapids in a non-conference win over Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato at Bernick's Arena in Sartell.

The Storm'n Sabres outshot the Dragons 38-20.

Litch/D-C had goals by Krista Tormanen and Grace Braaten.

Litchfield/D-C (2-2-0) 1 0 1 — 2

Sartell/SR (1-4-0) 2 2 4 — 8

FIRST PERIOD — (1) SSR: Jalyssa VanDenBerg (Brayley VanDenBerg, Peyton Sabart), 4:34 ... (2) LDC: Krista Tormanen (Olivia Robertson, Abby Woelfel), 9:16 PP ... (3) SSR: Megan Hess (Faith Torborg), 16:15 PP.

SECOND PERIOD — (4) SSR: Torborg (B. VanDenBerg), 12:58 ... (5) SSR: J. VanDenBerg (Sella Grams), 14:55.

THIRD PERIOD — (6) SSR: B. VanDenBerg (unassisted), 0:51 ... (7) LDC: Grace Braaten (Lydia Schultz), 1:15 .. (8) SSR: Emily VanVickle (unassisted), 4:44 ... (9) SSR: Grams (unassisted), 7:53 ... (10) SSR: B. VanDenBerg (unassisted), 11:45.

GOALIE SAVES/SHOTS — Litchfield/D-C: Janelle Quast 30/38 ... Sartell/SR: Morgan Dorn 18/20.

The Willmar girls' hockey team defeated St. Cloud 4-2 to improve its win streak to three games.

The Cardinals hold a 3-1 record this season and host Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato at 7:15 p.m. Thursday.

River Lakes 5, Hutchinson 0River Lakes improved to 3-1-0 after a non-conference win over Hutchinson at the River Lakes Civic Arena in Richmond.

The Stars play a Central Lakes Conference game Thursday at Brainerd/Little Falls.

Breckenridge/Wahpeton's Reagan Wohlers scored four goals and tallied two assists in the Blades' victory over Morris Benson Area at the Lee Community Center in Morris.

The Storm's lone goal came at 16 minutes, 53 seconds of the first period by Karlie Bruns.

Breckenridge/Wah. (2-2-0) 2 5 4 — 11

Morris/Benson (3-4-0) 1 0 0 — 1

FIRST PERIOD — (1) BW: Reagan Wohlers (Addie Rugland), 2:08 ... (2) BW: Wohlers (unassisted), 6:42 ... (3) MBA: Karlie Bruns (unassisted), 16:53.

SECOND PERIOD — (4) BW: Kennedy Schuler (Addie Rugland), 0:52 ... (5) BW: Karsyn Neppi (Alison Hoerer, Britta Pausch), 1:22 ... (6) BW: Reagan Wohlers (Anabel Pausch), 2:43 ... (7) BW: Ava Schuler (Ashlyn Wohlers), 11:50 ... (8) Holly Ovsak (Hoerer, B. Pausch), 13:32.

THIRD PERIOD — (9) BW: Hoerer (unassisted), 1:10 ... (10) BW: Wohlers (Neppi), 3:38 ... (11) BW: Neppi (Wohlers), 7:25 ... (12) BW: Ovsak (Wohlers), 15:35.

GOALIE SAVES/SHOTS — Breckenridge/Wah.: Kolle Schuler 12/13 ... Morris/Benson: Ava Breuer 44/55.