Sunday Wrap-up: Home Teams Win the Sunday Matchups

Wisconsin 0 @ Minnesota M 2 - The Minnesota Mallards respond to a Saturday night loss with a Sunday matinee win over the Wisconsin Windigo. The contest opened with the Mallards striking first when Thomas Gale scored in the first period. The second period would be quiet as both teams traded chances. Wisconsin outshot the Mallards 14-11 in the middle frame. The score would stay 1-0 until the final minute of the game. Ty Gordon struck unassisted with 44 seconds left to seal the 2-0 win for the Mallards. The Minnesota-based club would skate to a shutout win against the Windigo. Between the pipes for Minnesota was Max Pitts, sporting a 35-save performance.

Pueblo 1 @ Grand Junction 6 - The Grand Junction River Hawks dominated on a Sunday afternoon series against their in-state rival, the Pueblo Peppers. The scoring kicked off quickly in the matchup as Grand Junction struck first with three consecutive goals in the first period. Holden Gallagher showed up on the scoresheet first with a tally less than 90 seconds into the game. Midway through the first frame, Adam Konowalchuk lit the lamp for his first goal of the season while adding to the River Hawks’ lead. Shortly behind him in finding twine was Lincoln Martin with a little over eight minutes on the clock. Moving into the second frame, Grand Junction continued their scoring ways with Adam Konowalchuk recording his second goal of the contest with less than five minutes on the board. The Peppers would look to respond and were able to score their first of the contest with a goal by Michael Mathison with 34 seconds in the  frame. Moving into the final period. Grand Junction would go on to seal the win with two tallies in the first half of the frame. Trey Janssen lit the lamp for the first time this season, with Lincoln Martin scoring his second of the game. The River Hawks skate to a big 5-4 victory and a series win over Pueblo.

El Paso 1 @ Corpus Christi 5 - The Corpus Christi responded to a Saturday night loss with a big 5-1 victory on home ice. The contest opened with Chayse Laurie getting the scoring started midway through the first period to give the IceRays the lead. However, a little over a minute later, El Paso’s Alexi Gregoire would even the score with a power-play goal for the Rhinos. That even score was short-lived as Corpus Christi would regain the lead minutes later thanks to a power-play goal by Michael Azzarone. The scoring would continue into the second frame as Chayse Laurie recorded his second goal of the night, this time on the man advantage for the IceRays. Moving into the final period, Corpus Christi added to their lead with two more tallies, this time coming in first-goal fashion for two IceRays. Dylan Chabrier and Thomas Duhamel found the twine and ultimately secured a 5-1 win. Between the pipes for the IceRays, Yegor Batsokin turned aside 17 out of 18 shots on net to secure the win for the Texas-based club.

Minnesota W 4 @ Anchorage 5 - In game three of the series between the Minnesota Wilderness and the Anchorage Wolverines, the Alaska-based club would skate to victory with a close 5-4 win. The contest opened with Anchorage’s Seth Carlson lighting the lamp midway through the first period. Minnesota would respond minutes later as Robinson Djian tallied his second of the season to even the score. However, that tied scoreboard would be short-lived as Anchorage’s captain, Caleb Mahar, lifted the Wolverines to a 2-1 lead heading into the second period. In the middle frame, Minnesota’s Cole Cheeseman found twine for the first time this season to help even the score, 2-2, for the Wilderness. Just like the first period, Anchorage would regain the lead heading into intermission, this time Oliver Morris lights the lamp for the Wolverines. In the final period, Anchorage would command most of the frame with an early third-period goal by Loic Nasreddine in unassisted fashion. 10 minutes later, Michael Kotora would add to the Wolverines’ lead with a power-play goal. That three-goal deficit would be chipped away in the final minutes as Ferry Netsuil got to work on the ice. With less than four minutes on the clock, Netusil scored a power-play goal to make the score 5-3. Following that, Netusil would find the net with 21 seconds on the clock to tighten the score to 5-4. The Wilderness’ late-game heroics would come up short as the Wolverines maintained their one-goal lead until the final buzzer. Anchorage wins the series and a big four points on the weekend.