Millican, Braves fly past Midgets
The Dickinson High boys hockey team had its hands full playing one of the top teams in North Dakota.By: Royal McGregor, The Dickinson Press
- Austin Krank
The Dickinson High boys hockey team had its hands full playing one of the top teams in North Dakota.
Bottineau-Rugby used a four-goal first period to defeat the Midgets 9-0 in a West Region game Saturday at the Dickinson Recreation Center.
“We played hard,” Dickinson head coach Tom Folske said. “We didn’t quit and we kept coming at them. That’s all you can ask.”
The Braves (12-3, 10-0 West) not only have one of the best records, but the top scorer in the state.
Logan Millican had 24 goals coming into the game and added three more to his total. The path for the senior forward hasn’t always been this steady, though he averages more than two points a game.
“I think the biggest thing, he’s really has grown from his sophomore year to his senior year in terms on how he plays every shift,” Braves head coach David Hoff said. “(Now) you get more of the same. Before you would get a good shift and then you would get the shift that he would maybe take a shift off. As he’s grown, he’s became tenacious shift after shift.”
Folske didn’t want to focus on stopping one guy, because the Braves have five players among the top 20 scorers in the state.
“That’s the problem with keying on one guy with Bottineau,” he said. “They’ve got a couple good guys. They’ve got two solid lines and then they’ve got two lines that can skate.”
Millican scored the opening goal 5 minutes, 14 seconds in the first period. He also nabbed the final goal in the period (15:21) and the first goal in the second period (2:54).
His play influence his teammates. Harrison Aide knocked in two goals and one assist. Nick Monson scored one goal and had three assists.
“That rubs off on the rest of the guys and he’s a leader for us just in the way that he plays,” Hoff said.
The Midgets (3-13, 0-11 West) had scoring chances throughout the game, but they weren’t able to capitalize on the opportunities.
The best opportunity was when sophomore Alex Turcotte nearly scored on a wrap-around goal in the second period.
“I thought I was going to get that one,” he said with a smile. “I think I was just too in shock that I didn’t get it up high enough.”
Dickinson’s toughest break came in the second period after Brendin Steiner was ejected from the game after a kicking penalty. Steiner said he was trying to get the puck out of the corner and the referee thought he was intentionally kicking a B-R player.
“That wasn’t my intention at all,” Steiner said.
Though penalties didn’t completely haunt the Midgets through opposing power-play goals, Folske said because of the team’s lack in numbers, it’s critical for his players to stay out of the penalty box.
“We were a little more disciplined than we have been,” he said. “We just don’t have the man power to be playing short-handed.”
The Midgets started senior Matt Porter in goal and he faced 37 shots on goal through two periods. Freshman goalie Nick Cruz finished out the game with 13 saves in the third.
The Braves started Riley Monson in goal and he stopped all nine shots directed his way.
Dickinson will look to regroup by traveling to play another top tier West Region team, Bismarck Century, at 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday.
“They’re No. 1 and we’ve got to come in with the attitude that we want to play hockey,” Turcotte said. “We need to go into every game like that.”
BR 4 3 2 – 9
Dickinson 0 0 0 – 0
FIRST PERIOD: 1, BR, Logan Millican (Nick Monson) 5:14. 2, BR, Jackson Bernstein (Monson, Millican) 7:31. 3, BR, Kyle Volk (Luke Amsbaugh, Harrison Aide) 12:51. 4, BR, Millican (Ging Martin, Zach Kihle) 15:21.
SECOND PERIOD: 5, BR, Millican (Monson, Bernstein) 2:54. 6, BR, Aide (Martin, Amsbaugh) 5:36. 7, BR, Volk (Amsbaugh) 11:11.
THIRD PERIOD: 8, BR, Aide (Volk, Amsbaugh) 11:11. 9, BR, Monson (Martin) 12:59.
SAVES: BR, Riley Monson 4-2-3–9. D, Matt Porter 14-16-x–30, Nick Cruz x-x-15–15.
Tags: high school hockey, dickinson midgets, sports, hockey, midgets, dickinson, preps, high, school
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