AFFTON, Mo. – When you’re hot, you’re hot. Matt Dahlseide (Maplewood, Minn./North Iowa Bulls) has been red-hot for the North Iowa Bulls in mid-October, wrapping up last weekend with a hat trick against the Breezy Point North Stars.
Dahlseide didn’t miss a beat on Saturday night, in a 4-2 win over the St. Louis Jr. Blues. The third-year Bull scored two, including the opening goal just 22 seconds into the second period, as North Iowa ran its winning streak to five games.
Dahlseide came up big on the opening shift out of the locker room, rifling a mid-slot wrister past Jr. Blues goalie Brett Tome. St. Louis came up with an answer late in the second period, though, and took the momentum to the locker room.
With 4:38 remaining in the period, Pavel Kopytin beat Evan Babekuhl (Orono, Minn./North Iowa Bulls) on a give-and-go with Seamus Campbell to tie the game. Jacob Wiethaupt broke the 1-1 tie with a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle while racing through the traffic just 1:20 later to give the Jr. Blues the lead.
The momentum finally broke at the 6:05 mark of the third period, off of a turnover right next to Tome and the St. Louis goal. Dahlseide was near the puck as it was left behind, and was only so happy to wrap around and dump it in the net, tying the game at 2-2.
A hard slash from Mark Capkovic to North Iowa co-captain Cam Fagerlee (St. Anthony, Minn./North Iowa Bulls) ended Capkovic’s night, and sent the Bulls on a five-minute power play. The eventual game-winner, though, only took 19 seconds. A setup pass from Lucas Wahlin (Woodbury, Minn./North Iowa Bulls) from below the goal line gave Jordan Roo (Champlin, Minn./North Iowa Bulls) the chance he needed to toss one past Tome for a 3-2 lead with 9:39 remaining. The Bulls came through again on that same man-advantage with 6:14 to go, with Carter Wagner (Lino Lakes, Minn./Odessa Jackalopes) adding the insurance goal on a wrist shot from the slot.
“When you get your chance, you’ve got to strike and take advantage of it,” said Dahlseide. “We went into the third period down 2-1, and to be able to win that game 4-2 was big for us. It’ll give us momentum going into [Saturday] and we’ll try to keep it going.”
North Iowa also out-shot their hosts, 34-24, and killed both St. Louis power plays in the contest. Babekuhl made 22 saves to pick up his third win of the season, while Tome saw his five-game winning streak come to an end with 30 saves.
The Bulls and Jr. Blues return to action against each other at the Affton Ice Rink on Sunday afternoon, with a 1 p.m. puck drop. Live streaming coverage is available on HockeyTV, with free audio streaming on Mixlr.
North Iowa returns to the “Barn” on Saturday, October 26 to celebrate Halloween on “Hat Tricks and Treats” Night against the New Ulm Steel. Updated news and information on North Iowa Bulls hockey is always available at www.northiowabulls.com, and by following the team on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. To purchase advance tickets to any future Bulls home game, call 641-423-4625 or click here.
North Iowa 0 1 3 – 4
St. Louis 0 2 0 – 2
1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Isogai Nio (hooking-minor), 5:04; Boccardi Stl (tripping-minor), 15:14.
2nd Period-1, North Iowa, Dahlseide 7 (Fagerlee, Sullivan), 0:20. 2, St. Louis, Kopytin 1 (Campbell), 15:22. 3, St. Louis, Wiethaupt 13 (Hofstetter, Solimando), 16:42. Penalties-McNeil Nio (tripping-minor), 18:04.
3rd Period-4, North Iowa, Dahlseide 8 6:05. 5, North Iowa, Roo 5 (Wahlin, Sullivan), 10:21 (PP). 6, North Iowa, Wagner 2 (Roo, Stewart), 13:46 (PP). Penalties-Capkovic Stl (slashing-major, slashing-ej), 10:02; Dahlseide Nio (roughing-double minor, unsportsmanlike conduct – 10 minute), 12:01; Boccardi Stl (roughing-double minor, unsportsmanlike conduct – 10 minute), 12:01.
Shots on Goal-North Iowa 12-7-15-34. St. Louis 4-12-8-24.
Power Play Opportunities-North Iowa 2 / 2; St. Louis 0 / 2.
Goalies-North Iowa, Babekuhl 3-0-0-0 (24 shots-22 saves). St. Louis, Tome 6-2-0-1 (34 shots-30 saves).
A-321
Referees-Richard Palo.
Linesmen-Joseph O’Brien, Vaughn Upton.