The North Iowa Bulls ended the 2022 year on an epic Shootout win after finding themselves behind the 8 ball early on.
Early on at the 4:37 mark of the 1st, Austin forward Jack Malinski took a pass from Walter Zacher and was able to send one over the glove of Stefan Carney to take a 1-0 lead. Austin would continue to outplay North Iowa in the 1st when Damon Furuseth took a pass of the draw from James Goffredo with an almost identical shot over the glove of Carney and Austin took a 2-0 lead.
Big story coming into tonight’s game was the newest player Jackson Schouten. The 6’6 212lb Schouten signed a tender with North Iowa after playing 44 games with CarShield where he scored 7 goals and 9 assists, and became an instant fan favorite when he landed a hard hit on the Austin forward at the 9:22 mark of the 1st and North Iowa would end the 1st down 2-0.
At times like this, my mind floats back to the old movie DodgeBall and the popular quote “You gotta get angry, You gotta get Mean” comes to mind. I’m not sure if that’s what happened during intermission, but it seems the Bulls got the message loud and clear as they came out much more physical in the 2nd as we saw Simone Dadie lay a massive hit on Austin forward Isaak Brassard. North Iowa would continue to put the pressure on as they had several scoring chances including a breakaway opportunity from Byron Hartley who wasn’t able to put the puck in on the back hand.
One of the biggest turning tides of the games came at the 9:11 mark of the 2nd when Blake Johnson dropped the gloves with Byran Gilman. Johnson getting the upper hand in the fight and getting his team re-energized as well as the crowd. Shortly after, new fan favorite Jackson Schouten recorded his 1st goal with the North Iowa Bulls as he took a pass from Byron Hartley and put it in over the
glove. Two minutes later the Bulls tied it up when Jack Mesic sent a shot on net from in front of the bench and Nolan Abraham was able to redirect the shot to tip it in and the Bulls ended the second tied 2-2.
The game was far from over in the 3rd as Stefan Carney went to dive on the puck but wasn’t able to get there in time and Austin took the lead back at the 7:15 mark of the 3rd. The Bulls would continue the march to the “Sin-Bin” as Simone Dadie took an interference call at the 15:29 mark of the 3rd. Then, at the
16:11 mark of the 3rd, a hero emerged. Goalie Stefan Carney was able to find Max Scott breaking out of the zone shorthanded. Scott was able to dangle and put the puck through the 5 hole of Ethan Robertson to tie the game up before sending it to overtime..
Overtime was underway with both teams looking to end the game. North Iowa found themselves on the penalty kill again when Jack Mesic trying to help his forward get the puck out of the zone bumped the Austin forward and was called for Interference. North Iowa would spend the remaining 1:47 of overtime on the penalty kill before sending the game to a shootout.
In a back and forth shootout neither team was able to find the back of the net. It would take 7 rounds before a hero emerged, his name was Landon MacDonald when he was able to put one over the glove of Austin goaltender Ethan Robertson.
North Iowa ended 2022 with an amazing come from behind win over one of the top teams in the lead and will look to start 2023 with another win under their belt when they take on Austin for the 3rd time in 3 days. The push for the playoffs start now and North Iowa will be pushing for every win they can down the stretch.
Written by: Tom Larsen