SUPERIOR ROUGHRIDERS @ COLORADO JR. EAGLES
03.09.17 – Colorado 5, Superior 1
03.10.17 – Colorado 3, Superior 1
The Colorado Jr. Eagles closed out their regular season schedule with two wins over the Superior RoughRiders.
The Jr. Eagles out-shot the RoughRiders, 21-2, in the first period of Thursday's game, but it remained a scoreless tie thanks mainly to Superior netminder Ashton Opperman.
Colorado broke through for four goals in the middle period, however, and went on to a 5-1 victory.
Vincent Mastrandrea (2-2-4) figured in four of the five Colorado goals and Danvid Panzeca (2-1-3) found the net twice as well.
Adam Beyerlein scored late in the third period for Superior to ruin the shutout bid of Colorado's Braden Lajoie (15 saves).
Friday's game was scoreless for almost two periods. Superior's Jake Seibold broke the ice at 18:33 of the second period and the RoughRiders took a 1-0 lead into the third period.
Bronson Sudberry stopped all 36 shots he faced through the first 40 minutes, but the Jr. Eagles scored three times in the final 8:09 for a 3-1 win.
Panzeca scored twice for Colorado and Josh Tower supplied the game-winning goal with 5:09 left in the game.
Sudberry finished the game with 51 saves.
OGDEN MUSTANGS @ IDAHO JR. STEELHEADS
03.10.17 – Idaho 5, Ogden 3
03.11.17 – Ogden 3, Idaho 2
03.12.17 – Idaho 3, Ogden 1
The three-game series between the Idaho Jr. Steelheads and Ogden Mustangs this weekend in McCall, ID did not affect the WSHL standings as the two teams had already clinched their respective division championships, but it gave both teams one last opportunity for an elite pre-playoff test prior to their bye week.
Hunter Lester, who recently became the career goal scoring leader for the Jr. Steelheads franchise, scored the first and last goals of the game in a 5-3 Idaho win on Friday.
The Jr. Steelheads took a 4-2 lead into the third period, but Ogden's Zeke Zeier got the Mustangs within one with 6:38 left. Idaho's Sergei Pysarenko (35 saves) held the fort, however, until Lester's second tally of the night put the game away with 1:38 remaining.
Austin Shea scored twice for Ogden.
John Deroche gave the Jr. Steelheads a 1-0 lead 4:47 into Saturday's re-match, but the Mustangs responded with two goals to take a 2-1 lead by the first intermission.
Henrik Axeksson and Matus Spodniak scored 3:19 apart to give Ogden the lead. Both teams scored a single goal in the second period and Ogden out-shot Idaho, 13-5, in a scoreless third frame.
Ogden's Vladimir Cibulka was called upon to made just 18 saves while Tyler Matthews stopped 35 pucks for the Jr. Steelheads.
Lance Herning scored twice and Pysarenko stopped 22 of 23 shots as the Jr. Steelheads came back from a 1-0 deficit for a 3-1 win on Sunday.
Zeier scored and Francis Asselin made 32 saves for Ogden.
EL PASO RHINOS @ WICHITA JR. THUNDER
03.10.17 – Wichita 7, El Paso 4
03.11.17 – Wichita 7, El Paso 3
03.12.17 – Wichita 8, El Paso 6
The El Paso Rhinos had already clinched the Mid-Western Division title, but they played like the three-team race took a lot out of them as they allowed the Wichita Jr. Thunder to sweep them on their home ice.
Six different players lit the lamp for Wichita in a 7-4 win on Friday but, as usual, it was Peter Cicmanec (2-1-3) leading the charge for the Jr. Thunder.
Wichita scored four goals in the first period – including both of Cicmanec's tallies – to build an early lead and give Erik Spath (32 saves) all of the goal support he would need.
The Jr. Thunder had leads of 2-0 and 3-1 in Saturday's game, but the Rhinos came back and tied it up, 3-3, late in the second period on a goal from Alex Johanson.
David Good restored Wichita's lead two minutes after Johanson tied it and the Jr. Thunder entered the third period clinging to a 4-3 lead.
Wichita scored three times in the third, including the second of the game for both Cicmanec and Jack McClelland, for a 7-3 final.
Chaseton Sare scored the first two goals of the game for El Paso. Wichita's Erik Spath made 35 saves in the game – 20 of them in the second period.
John Erramouspe scored to give El Paso a 5-4 lead late in the second period of Sunday's game, but the Jr. Thunder came storming back with two goals late in the second period and two more early in the third on their way to an 8-6 win.
Jack McClelland (3-2-5) matched Errampouspe's hat trick and Cicmanec (2-2-4) added four more points to his league-leading total (52-82-134).
Adam Conkling got the call in net for Wichita and made 23 saves while giving Spath a rest.
VANCOUVER RANGERS @ SOUTHERN OREGON SPARTANS
03.10.17 – Southern Oregon 6, Vancouver 2
03.11.17 – Southern Oregon 2, Vancouver 1
03.12.17 – Vancouver 1, Southern Oregon 0
The Southern Oregon Spartans took two of three games from the visiting Vancouver Rangers, securing a first-round bye in the process.
Vancouver kept things close in the early going of Friday's game, but the Spartans broke out for three goals in each of the last two periods for a 6-2 win that secured a second-place finish and bye through the first round of playoffs.
Cy Jensen scored in the final minute to put the finishing touches on a hat trick and Mark Vlahovic made 16 of his 33 saves in the third period to suppress Vancouver's comeback attempt.
Michael Proskos collected three assists in the game for Southern Oregon while Vancouver's goals came from Paul Frys and Nikita Polishchuk.
Matthew Habbe made 41 saves for the Rangers.
Saturday's game was scoreless until midway through the third period. Adam Oja and Jake Eubank scored 2:40 apart to give Southern Oregon a 2-0 lead, but the Spartans were unable to protect Vlahovic's shutout.
Vladislav Polyashov out Vancouver on the board with 1:06 left, but the Rangers were unable to get the equalizer and the Spartans had a 2-1 win.
Vlahovic stopped 31 of 32 shots while Aaron Daniello made 15 of his 29 saves in the first period for Vancouver.
On Sunday, Josephs Illig scored the lone goal of the game late in the second period and Daniello stopped all 32 shots he faced in a 1-0 Rangers win.
Matias Toivola stopped 28 of 29 shots for the Spartans, but took the loss.
SEATTLE TOTEMS VS. BELLINGHAM BLAZERS
03.10.17 – Seattle 2 @ Bellingham 5
03.11.17 – Bellingham 5 @ Seattle 3
03.12.17 – Seattle 2 @ Bellingham 1
The Bellingham Blazers won the first two games of their series against the Seattle Totems, taking their head-to-head battle for the last playoff spot in the Northwest Division.
Five different Blazers scored as Bellingham put themselves in the driver's seat with a 5-2 win on home ice Friday.
Alexander Olson made 26 saves – including all 12 shots he faced in the third period to close the game out.
Jordan Greenfield gave Seattle a 1-0 lead in the first period, and Joseph Ryan but the Totems up 2-1 midway through the second but, with their playoff spot threatened, the Blazers pushed back hard.
Seattle's Austin Alarcon made 34 saves.
Seattle score the first three goals of Saturday's game, but Bellingham clinched their playoff spot with a 5-3 comeback win in Seattle Saturday night.
Five different players scored for the Blazers and Olson made 17 saves to pick up the win.
Bellingham scored four unanswered goals in the third period. Thomas Seven's goal at 18:39 broke a 3-3 tie and counted as the game-winner.
Dane Halstead added an insurance goal with :22 left.
Rasmus Mortensen made 15 saves for the Totems, but stopped just two of six shots in the third period.
Seattle won 2-1 in Sunday's game as both teams closed out their regular season schedule.
Colby Schaeffer scored both goals for the Totems and Liam Bohm-Meyer (29) and Alarcon (15) combined to stop 44 of 45 shots.
Jake Holden made 27 saves and Toivo Hannikainen scored for Bellingham.
ONTARIO AVALANCHE @ UTAH OUTLIERS
03.10.17 – Utah 6, Ontario 2
03.11.17 – Ontario 4, Utah 3 (2 OT)
03.12.17 – Ontario 4, Utah 3
The Utah Outliers picked up three points in their series against the visiting Ontario Avalanche – just enough to tie Casper for third place in the Northwest Division. The Outliers get the #3 seed for the division playoffs thanks to winning the head-to-head series with the Coyotes.
Viktor Tiutchenko and Maxim Gromov each scored twice to lead the Outliers to a 6-2 win on Friday.
Ontario's Owen Liskiewicz made 30 of his 38 saves through the first two periods. Henrik Lohman and Filip Ullgren scored the Avalanche goals.
Three times the Avalanche took the lead in Saturday's game and three times the Outliers responded with the tying goal.
Filip Ullgren gave Ontario a 3-2 lead with 8:19 left, but Utah's Filip Puurunen's goal with 1:31 left sent the game to overtime.
Ullgren ended it 32 seconds into double-overtime, making a winner of Filip Subrt. Subrt made 39 saves in the game – including all five shots he faced in sudden-death.
Marcus Rudhage made 36 saves for Utah.
Ontario took a 4-0 lead into the third period of Sunday's game but the Outliers made it interesting, scoring three times in the last 10 minutes of the game to get within a goal, but they were unable to beat Subrt (40 saves) for a fourth time to get the game to overtime.
Manual Mancha's second goal of the game sealed a 5-3 win for the Avs. Alex Bouchard also scored twice for Ontario.
CHEYENNE STAMPEDE @ SUPERIOR ROUGHRIDERS
03.11.17 – Superior 6, Cheyenne 2
03.12.17 – Superior 4, Cheyenne 3 (OT)
The Superior RoughRiders, playing their third and fourth games in as many days, went into the playoffs on a high note, taking a pair of games from the rival Cheyenne Stampede. Cheyenne held onto fifth place in the Mountain Division, however, by a single point over Superior.
Jake Seibold assisted on five of Superior's six goals in a 6-2 RoughRiders win on Saturday. Beyerlein scored twice and Bronson Sudberry made 26 saves.
Jozef Dusenka made 41 saves for the Stampede, whose goals came from Troy Beinhauer and Alexandre Gauthier.
Cameron Gardner scored the tying goal mid-way through the second period, then scored again just 22 seconds into sudden-death to give Superior a 4-3 win on Sunday.
The Stampede led, 2-0, in the first period and, 3-2, in the second, but the RoughRiders came back on home ice.
Shots were even, 7-7, through a scoreless third period.
--- compiled by Harrington Sports Media