By Brett Richter
Friday, Nov 21 – With the number one team in the division visiting your home rink for a weekend series, you need all hands-on deck. Coach Doug Lein, in his pregame comments to the Lumberjack roster, said, “It is next man up tonight. We need 100% focus and a 60-minute effort from each of you.” With some recent roster changes, the Lumberjacks hit the ice with 10 forwards and five defensemen; three short of a full team. He was asking a lot of the 15 players when it comes to handling the league leading Dryden Ice Dogs.
Knowing defense was required, the first period found the Lumberjacks forfeiting offense for sound defensive play. Dryden put up 21 shots on goal with Ironwood netminder Connor Doyle stopping 19 of those. The entire period was played five on five with no penalties being called. The period ended 2-0 in favor of the visitors.
The first 10 minutes of the second period found the Lumberjacks struggling to gain momentum and play the systems Coach Lein asked for. At the halfway point of period number two, the Ice Dogs were up 5-0. During a media timeout, Coach Lein passionately asked for the team to run the system, communicate on the ice, and play with passion. And with that, the Lumberjack team began anew. The remaining 10 minutes of the period saw the ice dogs add a goal and #22 Ryland Elsenpeter scored his third of the season for the Jacks. Elsenpeter’s goal was assisted by #11 Gavin Lafferty and #13 Jack Hanna. The period ended 6-1.
The last 10 minutes of period number two showed a different effort from the Lumberjacks. Seeing the effort, Coach Lein asked the team to dig deep and play the third like the last half of the second. 27 seconds into the third, team captain #7 Will Porter scored on a beautiful backhand goal assisted by #23 Owen Debrody and #19 Brendan Klotz. The Lumberjacks were playing with passion. The Ice Dogs added one more goal but the balance of the period was played very evenly between the two rivals. There was a lot to build on following the end of the 7-2 loss. In his post-game comments, coach Lein talked about the game within the game. “We need to play a full 60 minutes like we played the last 30. Our first 30 minutes needed work. Our second 30 was much better. Let’s start tomorrow night like we ended tonight and play a full 60.” It would take 24 hours before he would know the response.
Saturday, Nov 22 – The last game before the Thanksgiving break found the Lumberjacks back at the Pat O’Donnell Civic Center for game two of the weekend series against the Dryden Ice Dogs. Using the last 30 minutes of Friday’s game as motivation, Head Coach Doug Lein asked the short-handed roster to give it their all. With a bye week coming over Thanksgiving, the team had adequate time to rest.
The first period found the Lumberjacks playing even hockey with the league leading Ice Dogs. A balanced attack found the shots on goal relatively even after the first 20 minutes. Ironwood goalkeeper, Gavin Covrig had one goal sneak past him ending the first 1-0 in favor of Dryden.
The second period got off to a great start with #25 Jack Carruthers scoring his team leading 8th goal of the season at the 4-minute mark. Carruthers was assisted on the goal by defenseman Tim Hanulik and his line mate, Brendan Klotz. The two teams stayed tied for several minutes before the Ice Dogs added two goals in less than two minutes. The second period ended with the Jacks down 3-1. After 40 minutes of play, the penalty box door had yet to be opened. Key word being – Yet!
The Lumberjacks came out flying in the third period and pushed back on their opponent. Dryden took an early penalty and the Jacks had chances, but the score remained 3-1. At the 9-minute mark of the third, two Ironwood players and one Dryden player entered the box putting Dryden on a power play. Less than two minutes later, Ironwood committed another penalty putting themselves down two men. Dryden took advantage and scored. Shortly after, Dryden went back to the penalty box and the ensuing power play allowed Jack Carruthers to record his second goal of the game with another assist credited to Brendan Klotz. Dryden would add one more power play goal late in the game making the final score 5-2.
The Lumberjacks are off for Thanksgiving break and return to the Pat O’Donnell Civic Center December 5th and 6th for a very important match up against the Red Lake Miners. Friday will be a regular 7 pm and Saturday will have the start pushed back to 7:30 pm start time . Hope to see you there.