The Alexandria Blizzard was within striking distance after one period, but the North Iowa Bulls put the pedal down in the second en route to an 8-2 victory.
Trey Gardner had two goals to lead North Iowa to victory. Gardner\’s tallies came at 4:57 into the second period to make the score 3-1 North Iowa and 2:51 into the third to make the score 8-2 North Iowa.
North Iowa additionally got points from Richie Marenis, who also finished with one goal and three assists to lead the team in points, Matt Kroska, who also registered one goal and two assists, Logan Murphy, who also tallied one goal and one assist, and Conor Jonasson, who also racked up one goal and one assist. Brandon Anderson also scored for North Iowa. In addition, North Iowa received assists from Tyler Richison, Andrew Halama, and Ian Penvose, who contributed one a piece and Zach Jones and Austin Jackson, who each chipped in two.
Alexandria\’s offense operated below it season average. The Blizzard average 4.5 goals per game. Alexandria struggled to stay out of the sin bin throughout the game as it finished the game with 38 penalty minutes for 12 opposing power plays.
The Blizzard were helped by Ian Ecklund, who had two goals. Ecklund scored the first of his two goals at 4:06 into the first period to make the score 1-0 Alexandria. Mitch Krafcheck provided the assist. Ecklund\’s next tally made the score 5-2 North Iowa with 7:05 left in the second period. Alexandria had gotten the advantage when the Bulls\’ zach keryluk was sent off for high sticking. Joe Anderson assisted on the tally. More assists for Alexandria came via Garrett Skinner, who had one.
Chris Amsden made 22 saves for North Iowa on 24 shots. The Bulls incurred 14 minutes in penalty time with seven minors. Kyle Miller made 10 saves before being replaced by Evan Bisek, who took the loss and made 12 saves. The Blizzard registered one goal on five power play opportunities.