Blizzard, Tradesmen advance to Semis with wins on Thursday
Oregon defenseman Matthew Shaw celebrates his game-winning goal in the final seconds of a 3-2 win on Day 2 at the Fraser Cup.
The 2023 NA3HL Fraser Cup Championship continued on Thursday, March 23rd with two more exciting round-robin games as the Alexandria Blizzard and Oregon Tradesmen both punched their tickets to the Semi-Finals with wins.
The 2023 Fraser Cup takes place from March 22-26 at the St. Peters Rec Plex in St. Peters, Missouri. Six teams have advanced to the season-ending event, which annually crowns the NA3HL National Playoff Champion.
A round-robin format with two pools has been implemented, with the top two teams in each pool advancing to the Semi-Finals, where they will then cross over to play the other top two teams from the other pool. The winners of the Semi-Finals will advance to the Fraser Cup Championship Game.
The six teams that advanced to the Fraser Cup Championship Tournament were seeded 1-5 based on their division’s performance against other divisions at the NA3HL Showcase. The wild card team is the 6th seed.
Games can be seen live and in HD on HockeyTV
Admission to all Fraser Cup games is free.
For more information about the Fraser Cup, please visit: http://na3hl.com/fraser-cup/
The seeding for the event will be as follows:
Pool A: #1 Alexandria Blizzard (West), #4 Texas Brahmas (South), #6 Granite City Lumberjacks (Wild Card)
Pool B: #2 Oregon Tradesmen (Central), #3 Helena Bighorns (Frontier), #5 Northeast Generals (East)
2023 Fraser Cup Championship Schedule (all times Central)
Wednesday, March 22: Alexandria Blizzard 4 vs. Texas Brahmas 1 | Oregon Tradesmen 3 vs. Helena Bighorns 4 (Shootout)
Thursday, March 23: Alexandria Blizzard 3 vs. Granite City Lumberjacks 1 | Oregon Tradesmen 3 vs. Northeast Generals 2
Friday, March 24: Texas Brahmas vs. Granite City Lumberjacks, 4pm | Helena Bighorns vs. Northeast Generals, 7pm
Saturday, March 25: Alexandria Blizzard vs. Pool B 2nd place, 4pm | Pool B 1st place vs. Pool A 2nd place, 7pm
Sunday, March 26: Championship Game, 3pm
Day 2 Recaps
Fraser Cup Round-Robin, Pool A: Alexandria 3 vs. Granite City 1 – The #1-seeded Blizzard won Pool A and advanced to the Semi-Finals of the 2023 Fraser Cup thanks to a 3-1 win over division rival Granite City on Thursday. After a scoreless 1st period, the Blizzard seized control of the game in the 2nd period with a pair of goals from Joe Gronholz and Justin Kingery to make it 2-0 after 40 minutes of play. In the 3rd period, Granite City make it a 2-1 game as Paul Huglen scored the lone goal for the Lumberjacks. Just over a minute later, the Blizzard would respond with an insurance goal from Ryan Hadland, his second goal of the Fraser Cup, to put Alexandria up for good at 3-1. Blizzard goalie Konrad Kausch made 25 saves in the win, while Ryan Lehet made 29 saves in the loss.
Fraser Cup Round-Robin, Pool B: Oregon 3 vs. Northeast 2 – The Oregon Tradesmen assured themselves one of the Pool B spots in the Semi-Finals thanks to a come-from-behind 3-2 win on Day 2 against the Generals. The Generals were first on the board thanks to a goal from Phil Feinberg in the 1st period. Oregon tied the game at 1-1 early in the 2nd period on a goal from Bryce Stensrud. The Generals regained the lead at 2-1 thanks to a goal from Henry Wilson. However, the Tradesmen would again tie the game as Easton Simpson scored after some nice forechecking behind the net to make it 2-2. Late in the 3rd period with just :16 seconds left in regulation, a slap shot from the point from Matthew Shaw found its way through traffic for the game-winner. Tradesmen goalie Tyler Fromolz made 27 saves in the win, while D’Mar McCoy made 22 saves in the loss.
