Mason City, IA – October began with a North Iowa Bulls win over the Minnesota Wilderness. North Iowa enjoyed a balanced offensive effort with three different goal scorers that included two first time goal scorers.
Clear Lake, IA, native Dylan Bieber opened up the scoring early in the first period to stake the Bulls to an early advantage by tipping in a shot from Olli Niemela. The former Mason City Mohawk, who scored 67 goals and 143 points in 126 career games, potted the first goal of his junior hockey career in his third Bulls game.
Dubuque, IA, native Alex Heinkel extended the lead in the second period by tipping in a Caden Williams shot for the first goal of his junior hockey career in his third Bulls game. The assist was Williams’ first career NA3HL point. Jace Kampsula netted the first goal of the Wilderness’ season on a transition rebound to cut the deficit down to just 2-1 before second intermission.
Through the first two periods, the Wilderness held off the Bulls’ power play in two attempts. The third time proved to be the charm as Captain Grant Harder punched in the first goal of his season and eighth point of his season in just three games. The goal moves Harder, a third-year defenseman from McCook Lake, SD, into a tie for 10th all time atop the Bulls’ goal scoring list for defenseman with 12, tied with Sam Menne and Shane Bernhardson. The point moves Harder into a solo hold of 10th all time in Bulls blue line scoring, moving ahead of Dayton Honkanen.
The rest of the third period descended into an avalanche of penalties. Thirteen of the sixteen penalties and 80 of the 84 penalty minutes came after the ten-minute mark of the third period. Through it all, North Iowa held the fort. Goaltender Brock Devlin stopped 27 of 28 shots for the first win of the season in his season debut.
Rhett Miswicki, Andrew Sysko, Christian Plaga, and Wakely Holzer had one assist each in the Bulls’ win.
Hudson Smith stopped 28 of 31 shots in the Minnesota net. Marccus Anttila and Michal Soukup had individual assists on the Wilderness’ lone goal.
The weekend series wraps up tomorrow with a 6:30 puck drop at the Mason City Arena.