11-17, 11-18, 11-19 Weekend Recap
By Meghann Norrbom
11-17 – Blue Ox Roll with 5-3 Win against Muskies
The Blue Ox outshoot the Muskies 49-23 for the 16th win of the season and their first win of the weekend.
It didn’t take long for the 15-1-1 Minnesota Blue Ox to capitalize on their first goal of the game. Just a minute into play, Halme skates the puck right in front of the Muskies goalie just to flip the puck back to Colton Ryan who slides the puck in between the goaltenders legs for the 1-0 lead. A shorthanded goal is next to come when a shot from the blue line over to Kyle Kester finds the netting in the second goal of the night. The strong first period kept going when a behind the net pass from Murph got picked up by Kristian Kause to put the Blue Ox up 3-0.
The second period proved strong for the Muskies. Narrowing the Blue Ox’s lead to just one goal, the Blue Ox and Muskies headed into the third period with a score of 3-2.
A knotted game came just 43 seconds into the third period when the Muskies snuck a shot passed the Blue Ox. Blue Ox forward, Kyle Kester, didn’t let that tie score last long when Swenson’s corner ice pass found Kester who buried that fourth goal. The fifth and final goal of the night came when a deflected shot bounced right in front of Phil Schader who merely had to tap the puck for the win.
Josh Greune tallied his eighth win of the season in the Friday night game. Greune finished the night with a save percentage of .913 and blocked a total of 20 shot on goal.
For all the stats on the Friday night match up, click the link below!
http://www.usphl.com/game/show/19874620?subseason=392947&referrer=3442737
11-18 – Boudreau tallies yet another shut out win!
The Minnesota Blue Ox find their fourth sweep of the season in the 5-0 win over the Hudson Havoc on Saturday, November 18th.
The Minnesota Blue Ox came out of the gate swingin’ as they charted three goals in the first period alone. With the Havoc’s goalie falling out of the crease blocking a shot, that left Kyle Kester with more than enough room to flip the puck up into the netting for the first goal of the night. On a pass from Murph and Ciolek, Oskari Halme skated towards the Havoc’s goal with the puck, quickly crosses in front of the tendy and flips one into the top of the net for goal 2. Nearing the end of the period, the Blue Ox are bouncing passes around in the offensive zone, Scherz found Oskari Halme 3 feet up from the blue line, Halme then slaps one passed the Havoc for a power play goal.
Midway through the second period, Ciolek and Mueller both fire shots on goal only to be blocked both times, but Kristian Kause picks up the second rebound and simply taps the puck into the Havoc’s goal to widen the lead to 4 goals. With 8 minutes left in the second period, Halme creates the turnover by the Havoc and took the puck back to his blue line skating passed a herd of Havoc then passing the puck over to Phil Schader who one timed it passed the net minder.
After a scoreless third period, the Minnesota Blue Ox outlast the Hudson Havoc by a score of 5-0. With 41 shots on goal from the Blue Ox and a 60% power play conversion, the Blue Ox tally their 17th win of the season. Brady Boudreau would finish with a perfect save percentage, blocking all 16 shots on goal from the Havoc. Boudreau now has nine wins this season in net.
For all the stats on the Saturday night sweep, click the link below!
http://www.usphl.com/game/show/19874637?subseason=392947&referrer=3442737
11-19 – Blue Ox Rally to 6-5 Overtime Win
Down 3-0 midway through the second period, the Minnesota Blue Ox rally to overcome the Minnesota Moose in an overtime 6-5 win on Sunday, November 19th.
The Moose got off to a quick start scoring 3 goals right out of the gate. Midway through the second period the Blue Ox are down by 3 goals, but a power play is soon to come for the Ox. Nearing the end of the power play on passes from Nikiforov and Scherz, Oskari Halme skates into the offensive zone from center ice, with the puck and flips one up over the shoulder of the goalie to bring the Ox to one goal. 2 minutes later, skating up passed the blue line, Phil Schader fakes his first shot and the Moose’s goalie slides out of the crease. Schader takes the nearly open net shot, easily making the second goal for the Blue Ox. After goal number two, the Moose’s goaltender Kevin Hale left the ice due to an injury. With a new tendy in net, the Blue Ox took full advantage of the switch up. Rounding out the second period, the Moose would be faced with a penalty, putting the Blue Ox on an extremely needed power play. When a shot from Worre bounces of the Moose’s goalie, Kyle Kester picks up the rebound and lands it in the back of the net to close out the second period.
With the score sitting at 5-3 Moose, we headed into the third period. With Tyler DePuy sitting out behind the Moose’s net, Gibbs passes the puck over to the front corner of the net and DePuy sneaks up and fires a surprise shot passed the tendy. With a penalty on both teams, play moved to a 4-on-4 format with 4 minutes left in the third period. Passing the puck back and forth as they charged up the ice, Halme, back to Schader, and over to Oskari Halme again who lifts the puck up into the top corner of the Moose’s net. Tie Score. 5-5.
Heading into the 3-3 overtime format it didn’t take long for the Blue Ox to capitalize on their comeback win. 41 seconds into play, Oskari Halme skated up into the neutral zone and up passed the blue line, passed the puck backwards to Phil Schader who nails one passed the goalies right arm.
The visiting Blue Ox led nearly the whole game in shots on goal and ended up with 34 shots on goal. Josh Greune tallied his ninth win in net with this overtime win where he blocked 23 shots on goal.
With this win, the Minnesota Blue Ox are now 18-1-1 on the season. The Blue Ox will break for the holiday weekend and will continue play back at home December 1st and 2nd at 7 pm.
For the full stats on this overtime win, click the link below!
http://www.usphl.com/game/show/19874650?subseason=392947&referrer=3442737