North Iowa, Flint win on Day 1 at Silver Cup

March 27, 2014

Flint Junior Generals 3 vs. St. Louis Jr. Blues 1 – The Junior Generals #1-ranked defense lived up to its billing as they shut down the Jr. Blues and got some timely scoring to win their opening game of the Silver Cup. Just over three minutes into the game Flint took a 1-0 lead as defenseman Ryan Burr crashed the net and poked home a loose rebound at the side of cage underneath the legs of St. Louis goalie Cooper Cothran. After a scoreless 2nd period, Flint took a 2-0 lead on a St. Louis turnover as Austin Fletcher took advantage of a defensive squabble in front for a 2-0 lead. St. Louis pulled within 2-1 on a rebound goal by Maxwell Cobb. However, that is all Flint goalie Anders Franke would allow as the netminder made 33 saves and Flint sealed the game with an empty-net goal by Brett Leppek. Boxscore

 

North Iowa Bulls 7 vs. Dallas Jr. Stars 1 – On the strength of a four-goal 1st period, the North Iowa Bulls jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in an opening night 7-1 win over the Dallas Jr. Stars as the Bulls opened up their title defense. Matt Kroska scored twice in the 1st period along with goals from Rihards Marenis and Zach Jones.  Marenis scored his second goal of the game early in the 2nd period to push the lead to 5-0.  However, Dallas responded with a Jake Gevaart to make the score 5-1 where it stayed for the rest of the period. Marenis completed his hat-trick with a goal early in the 3rd period to make it 6-1. Kyle Kruger added a power play goal to make the final score 7-1. Bulls goaltender Jordan Moran made 13 saves in the win, while Chris Mallon made 61 saves on 68 North Iowa shots. Boxscore