Whichever team finished with the puck last would win.
In a back and forth scoring battle, the Dickinson High boys hockey team outlasted Bismarck Century 9-6 on Friday at Dickinson Recreation Center.
“In the third period it was last goal was going to win but our boys dug deep when things got down for them,” Dickinson head coach Dallas Kuntz said. “They stepped up, communicated and played as a team and when we needed goals we got them and that was the biggest thing.”
The Midgets never relinquished their lead the entire game and started off the game strong, scoring the first three goals of the night and kept the puck in Patriots’ territory. However, in the final seconds of the period, Century junior forward Byrne Curl scored to make it 3-1 and start up his team’s resurgence.
Curl, junior forward Alex Flicek and junior defenseman Jacob Huber scored Century’s six goals with two each.
The Patriots opened the second period with a quick pair of goals to tie the game up. With 11 minutes, 34 seconds left, senior forward Alex Turcotte scored his third goal of the night on a breakaway shot to put his team back on top. Turcotte finished with a team-high four goals while junior forward Matt Pavek supplied two goals of his own.
“They didn’t stop we scored, they scored, we scored, they scored,” Turcotte said about the back and forth scoring. “They kept firing them back at us. We had them on their heels for the most part in the game but they didn’t stop either. It was a pretty good game.”
Pavek added: “We all just got fired up, we couldn’t let them win and we were just going to keep going.”
Friday’s big win over Century puts Dickinson at 3-1 on the season and is a confidence booster after its last game against Bottineau-Rugby and lost 9-4. Pavek said the key to the Midget’s victories has been a healthy balance of offense and defense in each game.
“We’ve been playing really solid defense. We have to give a lot of credit to the defense, but the offense is doing really well too and we just got to keep scoring them puck.”
While the team only has one loss and has had large-margin victories, the Midgets are far from perfect. Kuntz said his team still needs to work on its special teams, penalty kill and power play but most importantly playing a full three periods. Today the Midgets host Hazen at 3 p.m. and if they want to keep the momentum rolling in their favor, the key is for them to play a complete game from beginning to end.
“Play a full game, start strong, play strong and finish strong,” Kuntz said. “You have to play three full periods and when we do, I think it’s going to be a sight to see. I’m excited to see us play a full game we haven’t done it yet, but when we do I’m excited to see.”
Century 1 2 3 – 6
Dickinson 3 1 5 – 9
FIRST PERIOD: 1, DHS, Alex Turcotte (Matt Pavek, Mike McChesney), 2:50. 2, DHS, Andrew Heckaman (Alex Bast), 5:17. 3, DHS, Turcotte (Kass Dvorak), 12:57. 4, BC, Byrne Curl (Jacob Huber), 16:53.
SECOND PERIOD: 5, BC, Alex Flicek, :21. 6, BC, Curl (Grant Dockter), 3:07. 7, DHS, Turcotte (McChesney), 5:26.
THIRD PERIOD: 8, BC, Flicek (Jordan Smith), 1:53. 9, DHS, Tim Knudson (Dvorak), 2:52. 10, DHS, Pavek (Turcotte), 5:50. 11, DHS, Dvorak (Heckaman), 6:32. 12, BC, Huber (Smith), 7:09. 13, DHS, Pavek (Turcotte), 8:01. 14, BC, Huber (Flicek, Cole Foss), 12:33. 15, DHS, Turcotte (Braden Kessel), 15:50.
SAVES: BC, Wyatt Bonnell 6-6-1-13, Max Barta 0-0-5–5. DHS, Brett Schweitzer 2-11-15–28.
