The La Crosse Freeze and the Alexandria Blizzard were evenly matched throughout their contest, but La Crosse made the most of its opportunities and won, 3-2.
No lead was more than one goal during the contest, and the winning goal was scored by Hunter Smith at 7:10 of the third period.
The Freeze got the win on the strength of a great game by Smith, who had one goal and two assists.
La Crosse forced Blizzard\’s goalies to work in net, racking up 36 shots and forcing 33 saves. Levi Goosmann made four stops and Evan Bisek made 29.
La Crosse also got points from Chong Hyun Lee, who also finished with one goal and one assist and Tyler Gorniak, who also racked up one goal and one assist. More assists for La Crosse came via Jared Bromberg and Ben Henderson, who contributed one each.
Alexandria excelled on the penalty kill, not giving up a single goal in seven chances.
The Blizzard were helped by Aaron Ryback, who had one goal. Ryback scored on the power play 16:20 into the first period to make the score 1-0 Alexandria. Alexandria had taken the advantage when the Freeze\’s Jake Lipski got sent off for cross checking. AJ Gullickson picked up the assist. Alexandria also got a goal from Tyler Berginski as well. In addition, Alexandria received assists from Trent Olson, Tommy Hall, and Austin Kilian, who each chipped in one.
Andrew Wagner made 26 saves for La Crosse on 28 shots. The Freeze incurred 14 minutes in penalty time with seven minors. The Blizzard incurred 26 minutes in penalty time with eight minors.
