TODAY’S GAME:
THURSDAY – Lewiston/Auburn vs. North Iowa, 4:00 p.m.
LEWISTON/AUBURN NORDIQUES (48-4-0-0) (ROSTER, STATS)
vs. NORTH IOWA BULLS, 34-13-3-0 (ROSTER, STATS)
COVERAGE: HockeyTV (video/$)
BULLS vs. LEWISTON/AUBURN ALL-TIME: 1-0-0
2019-20 SEASON TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE: Season tickets are now available for 2019-20, the ninth season of North Iowa Bulls hockey. Early-bird discounts are available through May 1. For more information on North Iowa Bulls season tickets, click here.
WELCOME BACK, WE’VE BEEN EXPECTING YOU: After a one-year hiatus, the Bulls return to the Fraser Cup tournament for their sixth appearance in seven years. North Iowa was knocked out of last year’s playoffs in the Central Division finals, but the Bulls made the tournament each year from 2013 to ’17. The Bulls played for a title in their first four appearances at the tournament, winning the previously-named Silver Cup in 2013, ’14 and ’16.
NEW KIDS IN TOWN: Lewiston/Auburn is one of the “new kids on the block” at the tournament, but the Nordiques are already playing like Fraser Cup veterans. L/A won its opener on Wednesday against the Helena Bighorns, 4-1. The Nordiques are the third team in three years to qualify for the tournament out of the Coastal Division, and the first to ever win a game at the tournament – the 2016-17 Long Beach Sharks went 0-3 in the final week, while last season’s New England Stars finished 0-2, plus a shootout loss.
GETTING HOT AT THE RIGHT TIME: There isn’t a man on the Bulls roster who has had a bigger run recently than Jarod Blackowiak – the second-year Bulls forward heads into the Fraser Cup on a seven-game point streak, with at least one assist in every one of those games. The Eden Prairie, Minnesota native also buried goals in each of the first two division semifinal contests against the Rochester Grizzlies.
FIGHTING TO THE FINISH: A couple of North Iowa alumni came tantalizingly close to an ACHA Division I national championship this week for the Iowa State Cyclones, before coming up just short in the title game. Former Bulls Kurt Halbach and Jake Joyaux are defensemen for ISU, who finished up second in the nation for the fifth time with a 3-1 loss to the Minot State Beavers. Halbach played all four games in the national tournament, and had three points in 16 appearances during the regular season. Joyaux had one assist in six games, and did not make an appearance at nationals.
MEDIA NOTES: