THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minn. – Caleb Sauer turned aside all 28 shots he faced to post his second shutout of the season in backstopping the Thief River Falls Norskies to a 4-0 decision over the Dryden GM Ice Dogs Tuesday evening in Superior International Junior Hockey League play at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
Thief River Falls picked up the eventual game-winner 11:37 into the contest as Tyler Johnson made a nice cross-crease feed over to Joe Collins, who notched his 11th of the campaign past a sprawling Jacob Anthony in the Dryden net and also extended a consecutive game point streak to five in the process.
The Norskies then made it 2-0 four minutes into the middle stanza, that was the result of Mason McIntosh setting up Cameron Murray to the right on the goal, where he snapped in his third for the lone tally of the period.
In the final period, the home side got some early insurance after the GM Ice Dogs could not clear the zone with an attempt deep in their own territory that resulted in defenceman Connor Kalthoff firing one through a screen from the point to put the hosts up by three.
They then capped off the victory with 11:35 to go as Josh Olson finished off the work of teammates Tyler Kiley-Ram and Cory Checco to round out the scoring.
Dryden starter Jacob Anthony faced 41 attempts in defeat.
The two teams meet again Wednesday in a 7 p.m. start back at The Ralph.
Photo credit: Tim Benton