Blizzard Fall Short in Season Opener
The Alexandria Blizzard opened the ’21-’22 season with two road games in Mason City against the defending Frasier Cup Champions.
The Blizzard traveled to Mason City this weekend to take on the Toro’s, who rebranded from the North Iowa Bulls over the offseason. Saturday night turned into a shootout with the Blizzard falling 8-5. Alexandria’s Wyatt Johnson scored the 1st goal of the season tying the game at 1-1 midway through the 1st period. Later in the first, Matt McIntyre was rewarded a penalty shot and capitalized giving the Blizzard a 2-1 lead before Mason City scored two late goals for a 3-2 lead after one. Trailing 4-2 Alexandria fought back to tie the game at 4-4 midway through the 2nd period with goals from Justin Wasvick, and Michael Debrito. Mason City ended the 2nd much like the 1st scoring twice for a 6-4 lead after two. Ryan Hadland’s goal pulled the Blizzard to within one 4 minutes into the 3rd, but that’s as close as they got. Sean Kenny picked up 3 assists, Kaden Peterson had 2 assists, and Debrito had a goal and an assist.
Sunday night was more of a defensive battle with the Blizzard falling just short in a 3-2 loss. The Blizzard had to battle back in this one. Trailing 2-0 late in the 2nd period, Ben Tschida scored a power play goal to get the Blizzard within one after two periods. Ryan Hadland scored his 2nd of the weekend with just over 5 minutes left to tie the game at 2-2, but Mason City came through on the power play scoring with 1:09 to play and sealing the victory. Bailey Rosch had 35 saves in defeat.
The Blizzard will stay on the road this weekend traveling to the Minnesota Loons on Friday at 7:30 pm and Willmar on Saturday at 7:10 pm. Catch all the action on hockeytv.com
Click the tickets tab to get your seats for the Blizzard Home Opener October 9th at 7:10 pm