The Alexandria Blizzard got a little payback with a 5-3 victory over Willmar on Friday night. The Warhawks, who six nights earlier stole a victory away from the Blizzard with a late comeback, jumped out early to a 1-0 lead when Jack Willis scored his 2nd of of the year. Late in the first, Caleb Strong tied it at 1-1 for the Blizzard moments after they killed off a 5 minute major penalty. Nikolai Rajala set up Strong off a nice 2 on 1 feed. Willmar did not lose the momentum though as Tyler Corbid scored his 4th goal of the year to put the Warhawks up 2-1 after one. Matthew Thompson scored the lone goal of the 2nd period evening the score at 2-2 and setting up another thrilling 3rd period. Logan Stellmach and Ben Tschida set up Thompson for his first Junior Hockey career goal. Alexandria went up 3-2 a minute and a half into the 3rd period when Carter Rieland buried his 1st of the year. Dallas Duckson and Wyatt Johnson picked up the assists. Willmar wasn’t done though as Michael Sweetland tied the game at 3-3 at the 8:16 mark of the 3rd, but the Blizzard took over after that. With just over five minutes left, it was Rieland with his second goal of the game executing a nice 2 on 1 with him and Nikolai Rajala. Strong added an empty netter for his team leading 5th goal of the season, and Joey Greilich made 26 saves for his first victory in net. Strong and Rieland each had 2 goal nights, and Nikolai Rajala helped out with 3 assists.
Alexandria (3-1-1 – 7 pts) is one point behind North Iowa for the West Division lead. North Iowa and Granite City come to town this weekend. Friday night will be Granite City (3-1 – 6 pts) Come out and support Cancer Awareness Night presented by Integrity Title. The Blizzard will be wearing specialty jersey’s that will be auctioned off after the game. Saturday night the Blizzard host North Iowa (4-1- 8pts) The puck drops each night at 7:10 CDT. Avoid the line buy your tickets online at tickets.alexandriablizzard.com or watch the action on hockeytv.com