ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The North Iowa Bulls fell just a bit short of the NA3HL’s single-game scoring record Saturday night, just a night after setting that record themselves against the Chicago Bulldogs, but their offensive onslaught did set one record for the second night in a row. Nine Bulls players scored goals in the second game of the team’s three-game weekend at Canlan Ice Sports, including six multi-goal games and a couple of hat tricks, in a 17-1 victory. The record came in the shots-on-goal counter, as North Iowa fired 92 shots at the Chicago net, including a 34-3 margin in the final 20 minutes of play.
The scoring started early again, with Mitch Dolter (Faribault, Minn./Shattuck-St. Mary’s) opening up the scoring with his fourth tally of the year, just 99 seconds into the contest. Connor Clemons (Savage, Minn./Prior Lake H.S.), Vincent Billing (Rogers, Minn./Rogers H.S.) & Owen Larson (Edina, Minn./North Iowa Bulls) all added goals before Collin Tripp scored his first junior goal with 4:01 remaining in the period – less than a minute later, Larson would land back on the score sheet, and Lucas McKinnon (Mason City, Iowa/Appleton United H.S.) would tally one last goal 46 seconds before the buzzer.
Billing picked up his second goal early in the second period, but the big rush came at the game’s midway point – Logan Miller (Menomonie, Wis./Menomonie H.S.) started a four-goal onslaught at 8:16 of the period that covered less than three minutes and ended with the last goal in Billing’s hat trick. Clemons added his last two goals in the final 4:26 of the stanza to finish off a hat trick of his own and send the Bulls to the locker room with a 13-1 lead.
The third period yielded four goals to put North Iowa just one short of the previous night’s record. The last one came with just 5:50 remaining, with Jason Miner (Cottage Grove, Minn./Park H.S.) earning his fourth and giving #17 on the Bulls roster the team’s 17th goal for the second straight game.
Special teams wouldn’t be a factor in the outcome, but a 3-for-4 night on the man-advantage was a nice bonus for the winners. The 47 total points in the game for the Bulls also wasn’t far from their league-record 50 points the previous night. North Carolina native Josh Cannon wasn’t in long for the Bulldogs, allowing five goals in the first 16:47 of the game on just 21 shots. Joe Timmerman came on in relief, stopping 59 of the Bulls’ remaining 71 chances. Brady Meyers (Rochester, Minn./John Marshall H.S.) faced just 12 shots in the Central Division tilt, with 11 stops. Only one game remains in the teams’ six-game season series, set for Sunday at noon at Canlan Ice Sports. All Bulls games home and away are streamed live at HockeyTV.com.