Flint and North Iowa clinch spot in Championship and Nationals
March 28, 2014
Flint Junior Generals 5 vs. Dallas Jr. Stars 2 – Flint moved to 2-0 for the Silver Cup and punched their ticket to the Championship game and a trip to the National Championships with a 5-2 win over Dallas thanks to two goals apiece from Zach Koonce and Austin Fletcher. Flint was propelled by a strong start, scoring three 1st period goals. Koonce scored the first two, with Fletcher assisting on both. Then, Fletcher added a power play goal with :58 seconds remaining in the period to make the score 3-0. Dallas got on the board early in the 2nd period on a power play goal from Dallas McIntyre, but that was answered five minutes later by Fletcher’s second goal of the game, which pushed the Flint lead to 4-1. Defenseman Ryan Burr scored his second goal in as many nights to close out the 2nd period with the Flint lead at 5-1. Stephen Smith scored the lone goal of the 3rd period for the Jr. Stars to make the final score 5-2. Final shots on goal were 53-19 in favor of Flint. Flint goalie Anders Franke played the first 20 minutes, stopping all seven shots that came his way. Andrew Wagner played the final two periods, making 10 saves. Chris Mallon took the loss in goal for Dallas, making 48 saves. Boxscore
North Iowa Bulls 7 vs. St. Louis Jr. Blues 0 – The North Iowa Bulls also moved to 2-0 at the Silver and punched their ticket to both the Championship Game and the National Championship Tournament with a convincing 7-0 shutout of the St. Louis Jr. Blues. Bulls goalie Chris Amsden made 25 saves in for the shutout and Matt Kroska and Rihards Marenis each had three points on the night. The Bulls jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the 1st period on goals from Kroska and defenseman Matt Fosdick. Marenis scored in the 2nd period to make it 3-0 and Zach Jones scored late in the period to make it 4-0. The Bulls added three more goals in the 3rd period from Marenis, Dominik Florian and Cameron Brown to make the final score 7-0. Bill Hindle took the loss in goal for the Jr. Blues making 38 saves. Boxscore