A stellar performance between the pipes by Robbiei Goor helped the Twin City Steel defeat the North Iowa Bulls, 3-1.
North Iowa\’s power play was ineffective against Twin City\’s penalty kill, which allowed zero goals while shorthanded.
The Steel were led by Jared Erickson, who tallied one goal. Erickson scored on the power play 5:36 into the second period to make the score 2-1 Twin City. Twin City had gotten the advantage when the Bulls\’ Connor Bump was sent off for roughing. Jay Paul assisted on the tally.
The Steel put up an impenetrable defensive front on the penalty kill, and did not allow North Iowa to score on any of its six power plays. Twin City\’s penalty killing units received substantial work throughout the game as the Steel finished with 22 penalty minutes.
Twin City also got points from Paul, who also registered one goal and one assist to lead the team in points. Twin City also got a goal from Jon Plaszcz as well. Other players who recorded assists for Twin City were David Becker, who had two and Kyle Wagner and Mikko Aho, who contributed one each.
The Bulls\’ offense operated below their season average. North Iowa puts an average of 3.5 pucks into the net per game. Twin City was unable to stop the Bulls from sending pucks towards the net, and North Iowa eventually piled up 31 shots on goal. The Bulls were forced to rely heavily on their penalty kill unit throughout the game, as they racked up 34 penalty minutes.
North Iowa was led by Ryan Durant, who scored the team\’s only goal. Durant scored 7:03 into the first period to make the score 1-0 North Iowa. Bump picked up the assist.
Goor recorded 30 saves for the Steel. Twin City registered three goals on seven power play opportunities. The Bulls\’ Jordan Moran stopped 26 shots out of the 29 that he faced. North Iowa ran into serious disciplinary problems during the contest, and Joe Kleven was ejected from the game.