Junior hockey: WarHawks knock off the Blizzard
Nov. 5—WILLMAR — The Willmar WarHawks got a much-needed home victory Friday night, beating the Alexandria Blizzard 5-2 before 800 fans at the Willmar Civic Center Arena.
It was the third victory in 11 NA3HL games for the WarHawks, breaking a three-game losing streak.
Willmar got a pair of goals from Braydon Buckingham and single goals from Owen Johnston, Ethan Dennis and Connor Garcia.
There were the third and fourth goals of the season in 11 games for Buckingham, a 6-foot-4, 180-pound forward from Prior Lake.
Garcia opened the scoring with a goal at 19:24 of the first period, his third of the season. He's a forward from Dearborn Heights, Michigan.
Johnston scored in the second period to make it 3-0, getting a short-handed goal at 13:35. It was the first goal of the season for the forward from Chicago, Illinois.
Zach Ortolano made 25 saves in net for the WarHawks to improve his record to 2-2 with a 3.66 goals-against average. The goaltender is from Las Vegas, Nevada.
Willmar next plays at 3:10 p.m. Sunday against the Mason City Toros at the Mason City Arena in Iowa.
Willmar 5, Alexandria 2
Alexandria (6-3-0-1) 0 1 1 — 2
Willmar (3-8-0-0) 1 2 2 — 5
FIRST PERIOD — (1) Connor Garcia 3 (Ethan Davis, Caleb Roehrich) 19:24. PENALTIES: (1) W: Tyler Misialek (slashing-minor, 2 min) 11:52 ... (2) A: Colby Nickel (roughing-minor, 2 min) 15:32.
SECOND PERIOD — (2) W: Brayden Buckingham 3 (Christian Kankelftitz, Misialek) 2:04 ... (3) W: Owen Johnston 1 (Connor Garcia, Ethan Dennis) 13:35, SH ... (4) A: Ryan Hadland 7 (Wyatt Johnson) 16:51. PENALTIES: (3) A: Marcellus Krueger (tripping-minor, 2 min) 8:03 ... (4) W: Misialek (head butting-major, 5 min) 9:31 ... (5) A: Karsten Senden (slashing-minor, 2 min) 14:41 ... (6) W: Chandler Dennis (holding-minor, 2 min) 14:41 ... (7): A: Kyle Mishcke (roughing-double minor, 4 min) 17:18 ... (8) W: Garcia (roughing-double minor, 4 min) 17:18 ... (9) W: Buckingham (roughing-minor, 2 min) 17:44 ... (10): A: Jayden Luck (roughing-minor, 2 min)
THIRD PERIOD — (5) W: Dennis 3 (Gavin Simon, Kankelfrtitz) 4:56, PP ... (6) W: Buckingham 4 (unassisted) 7:40, PP .... (7) A: Ethan Moerke 3 (Klingbell) 8:24 ... PENALTIES: (11) W: Kankelfrtitz (too many men-minor, 2 min) :43 ... (12) A: Cole Klingbell (interference-minor, 2 min) 2:59 ... (13) A: Ashton Collings (tripping-minor, 2 min) 7:16 ... (14) A: Johnson (holding-minor, 2 min) 9:07 ... (15) A: Krueger (hooking-minor, 2 min) 9:30 ... (16) W: Spencer Bergman (tripping-minor, 2 min) 16:28
GOALIE SAVES/SHOTS — Alexandria: Kyle Abrahamson 31/36 ... Willmar: Zack Ortolano 25/27
