The Alexandria Blizzard faced the Rochester Grizzlies this past Friday at the RCC in what was a very exciting game that required OT to determine the winner. Milan got the Grizzlies on the board first with a goal at the 10:02 mark of the 1st period with the Blizzard taking a late penalty setting up the Grizzlies to come out for the 2nd on the PP. Just 34 seconds into the 2nd period, Tyler Kludt used his speed and scored another short handed goal and tied the game 1-1 with his unassisted SH goal. Rochester regained the lead at the 6:37 mark on a Van Tassel shot that beat Zilinec but with a power play of their own late in the 2nd, Karsten Senden tied the game up again for the Blizzard on a play from Ashton Collings and Aiden Prochaska. With a quick 3rd period goal by Witham, the Grizzlies took the 3-2 lead at the 3:23 mark but found themselves a man down after a hooking call and the Blizzard capitalized on the PP once again. Ashton Collings netted the game tying PP goal at the 7:26 mark of the 3rd on a play from Tyler Kludt and Karsten Senden with the teams skating to a 3-3 at the buzzer. Both teams exchanged scoring chances with the Blizzard believing they had won the game with half the bench taking the ice only to have it called no goal and the Grizzlies scored the game winner at the 2:37 mark of OT for the 4-3 victor. Shots on goal were 34 to 25 in favor of the Grizzlies with the Blizzard going 2/4 on the PP and scoring their 15th short handed goal on the season.
With Saturday off, the Blizzard headed to Rochester for a Sunday afternoon game with the Grizzlies once again scoring first at the 3:38 mark on a Sawicky goal beating LaCosse. With a late period power play opportunity, the Blizzard capitalized with Joe Gronholz scoring his 9th of the season on a play from Matt Scribner and Ethan Boughton to tie it up at 1-1. The Grizzlies took the lead early in the 2nd period with a penalty shot chance that beat LaCosse and they added goals from Sawicky and Milan for the 4-1 lead after two periods of play. Both teams failed to produce any offense in the 3rd period with Rochester having a slight advantage of 33 to 27 shots on goal and the Blizzard going 1/6 on the power play for the night.
The Blizzard return to the RCC this Wednesday to face the MN Loons with puck drop at 7:10P. Tickets can be purchased at https://tickets.alexandriablizzard.com/