Dickinson starts strong, cruises to win over Sidney, Mont., club team
The Dickinson High boys hockey team didn’t miss many opportunities.By: Royal McGregor, The Dickinson Press
- Gannon Karsky
The Dickinson High boys hockey team didn’t miss many opportunities.
Plus, there were a handful of first times for many Dickinson players.
The Midgets scored three power-play and two shorthanded goals en route to a 7-0 win over the Richland Rangers U-19 team from Sidney, Mont., on Tuesday at the Dickinson Recreation Center.
“It’s a long season and we hadn’t really worked on the power play until last week,” Dickinson head coach Tom Folske said. “The first game against Williston (on Nov. 13) we hadn’t even practice the penalty kill.”
Dickinson’s back-to-back wins is the first time since the 2009-10 season. The Midgets (2-0) have two shutouts after beating Williston 6-0 a week ago.
Brett Schweitzer, who got his first varsity start in goal, stopped all nine shots he faced. He said there were some jitters at the beginning, but they quickly subsided after a three-goal first period.
“I didn’t see very many hard shots, but I made the saves I had to,” Schweitzer said. “I was definitely more relaxed after the first period. I had the jitters in the first period, but when we got those first two, it just came easier after that.”
Freshman forward Mike McChesney scored two goals in the season-opening win over Williston. He was back at it against Richland, supplying a pair of shorthanded goals.
“That’s just a product of working hard,” Folske said. “That’s what he did. He won the race to the puck. He won the race to the net.”
McChesney started the scoring with 10 minutes, 43 seconds left the first period and ended the scoring in the third period.
The Midgets had 50 shots on goal, while the Rangers had nine.
Sophomores Matt Pavek and Collin Bren each scored the first-career varsity goals. Neither played in the opener against Williston.
“We were just constantly pounding the net,” Bren said. “It felt awesome scoring my first goal.”
Bren hadn’t played hockey in 10 months because of multiple concussions. He netted his goal 12:38 with left in the third period. Senior Brendin Steiner, who scored in the second period, came on for the assist.
“We were winning the races, battling for the puck, passing, talking and we were playing good hockey,” Bren said.
Pavek, who had a hot start with a goal and two assists in the first period, scored the second goal of the first period.
“It feels good,” Pavek said with a smile. “We’ve been working on moving the puck.”
Danny Hocharenko and Mickey Folske each scored a goal while Kass Dvorak, Jayden Mink, Andrew Heckaman, Trevor Olheiser and Alex Turcotte all had assists. Heckaman supplied two assists.
Richland had seven penalties and head coach Jason Schmierer said that can’t happen against a Dickinson team.
“Dickinson is a faster team,” said Schmierer, who was ejected from the game with about 5 minutes left in the third period. “We did a poor job playing angles on them. We were chasing them all night. We’re not good enough to play them shorthanded. I think they had four power play goals at the end of the second period.”
Tom Folske feels the team is on right path and the Midgets get their first big test of the season when they to West Region opponent Bottineau-Rugby at 2 p.m. Saturday.
“We’ve grown since the first game,” Folske said. “We’ll find out Saturday. We’re playing a fairly good team and it will be a good test for us.”
Richland 0 0 0 – 0
Dickinson 3 2 2 – 7
FIRST PERIOD: 1, D, Mike McChesney (Matt Pavek) 10:43. 2, D, Pavek (Kass Dvorak) 5:52. 3, D, Mickey Folske (Pavek, Andrew Heckaman) 1:25.
SECOND PERIOD: 4, D, Danny Honcharenko (Alex Turcotte, Trevor Olheiser) 15:35. 5, D, Brendin Steiner (Jayden Mink, Heckaman) 8:21.
THIRD PERIOD: 6, D, Collin Bren (Steiner) 12:38. 7, D, McChesney (unassisted) 6:03.
SAVES: R, Trent Schilling 21-18-11–50. D, Brett Schweitzer 2-5-2–9.
Tags: high school hockey, dickinson midgets, sports, hockey
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