SUPERIOR INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
SIJHL MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Friday, Sept. 30, 2016
Strong start sends Norskies past Iron Rangers
HOYT LAKES, Minn. – The Thief River Falls Norskies erupted for five first period goals and went on to a 7-3 victory over the Minnesota Iron Rangers Friday in Superior International Junior Hockey League action at Hoyt Lakes Arena.
In this first meeting between the two U.S.-based SIJHL sides, it was the visiting Norskies that came out flying in this one as they scored five times in a 14-minute span to take early control of the contest.
After Austin Storm opened the scoring for Thief River Falls with his first SIJHL tally, the visitors broke it open in the second half of the stanza.
Tyler Chalupsky took a Keaton Huot feed from behind the net and snapped a shot from the right side that was redrected in by Storm for a man advantage effort at 10:44, which was followed Jake Eischen adding his first at even strength at 15:10.
The Norskies kept coming as they saw Connor smith strike twice in 28 seconds to make it 5-0 after one period of play.
Ryan Lessard made it 6-0 early in the second, but Minnesota came back with markers courtesy of Kenny Hasbargen and Logan Froberg to pull the home side to within four heading into the third.
In the final frame, Smith of Thief River Falls finished off a hat trick and a four-point night while the Iron Rangers’ Dalton Thieson added one for his side to wrap things up offensively.
Storm also had two assists for the Norksies.
Sam Novak faced 30 shots in picking up the win for Thief River Falls.
Jonathan Chin suffered the loss for Minnesota allowing six against on 13 attempts while Alex Burke handled 16 of 17 in nearly 38 minutes of relief for the Iron Rangers.