6 Goal Second Period Falls MLA Boys

Jan 16

Kerry Rodd-NSO

Things turned ugly in Saturday’s game for the Moose Lake Area Rebel boys hockey team. The Rebels outscored North Branch in the first and third periods, but a breakdown of epic proportions in the second period led to 6 goals in the period for the Vikings as they beat the Rebels 7-4.

North Branch gained a 1-0 lead on a Tommy Toohey goal at 8:02 of the first period, but the Rebels bounced back with goals from Michael Unzen and Zach Cisar at 11:34 and 14:22 to take a lead of 2-1 coming out of the first period. Unzen’s goal was assisted by Chris Gassert and Hayden Hoffman and Cisar’s goal was assisted by Josh Cisar.

The ugliness began just 1:53 of the second period when Jerrett Sachs scored the first of what would be 6 goals in the period for the Vikings. The Vikings scored a Gavin Runberg power play goal at 5:52, then Adam Wuertz scored at 6:20 and at 7:51 it was Runberg scoring again. In a matter of less than two minutes the Rebels went from being tied at 2-2 to trailing 5-2, but the bad news wasn’t over! At 10:10 it was Lane Noyes scoring for the Vikings and then Calvin Miska added another goal at 15:27. It was 7-2 for North Branch coming out of the second period. Ironically, the Rebels outshot the Vikings 17-8 in the period, but trailed by five goals.

The third period had an ugly side as well with a number of penalties being handed out for both teams. There were boarding penalties, roughing penalties and slashing penalties, all of which are results of frustration and to say the least there appeared to plenty enough of that to go around on both sides.

The Rebels showed a bit of resilience in the third period when Zach Cisar scored at 7:38. That was followed by a Josh Cisar goal at 11:29, but by that time the damage of the second period bordered on Titanic type proportions for the Rebels.

In all, the Vikings took 27 minutes in penalties, but the Rebels went 0-for-7 on the power play as North Branch goalie Hunter Miska made 29 saves on 33 shots. Austin Lanoue finished with 50 saves on 57 shots for the Rebels, who were outshot in the final period 32-5.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com