Lumberjacks and Bighorns advance to Fraser Cup Semis
Helena forward and captain Tyler Bloom celebrates a 1st period goal as Helena won Pool B in the round-robin of the Fraser Cup.
The 2023 NA3HL Fraser Cup Championship continued on Friday, March 24th with the final round-robin games of pool play as the Granite City Lumberjacks and Helena Bighorns 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.
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 1 vs. Granite City Lumberjacks 6 | Helena Bighorns 4 vs. Northeast Generals 1
Saturday, March 25, Semi-Finals: Alexandria Blizzard vs. Oregon Tradesmen, 4pm | Helena Bighorns vs. Granite City Lumberjacks, 7pm
Sunday, March 26: Championship Game, 3pm
Day 3 Recaps
Fraser Cup Round-Robin, Pool A: Granite City 6 vs. TX Brahmas 1 – The Granite City Lumberjacks punched their ticket to the Fraser Cup Semi-Finals with a dominating performance in a 6-1 win over the Texas Brahmas in the final round-robin game of play in Pool A. After a scoreless 1st period, the Lumberjacks put the game out of reach in the 2nd period with four goals from Tanner Brouwer, Zak Kennett, Jacob McPartland, and Lyncoln Bielenberg-Howarth. In the 3rd period, Granite City would add two more goals from Brett Robinson and Reed Hanus to make it a 6-0 game. With under a minute left in regulation, the Brahmas scored their lone goal of the game with a shot from the point from Henry McRoberts. The Lumberjacks outshot the Brahmas 29-12 in the game. Granite City goalie Ryan Lehet made 11 saves in the win, while Brahmas goalie Brendan Forden made 23 saves in the loss. With the win, Granite City moves onto the 7pm Semi-Final on Saturday against the Helena Bighorns.
Fraser Cup Round-Robin, Pool B: Helena 4 vs. Northeast 1 – The Helena Bighorns won Pool B and punched their ticket to the Fraser Cup Semi-Finals thanks to a 4-1 win over the Northeast Generals. The Bighorns were dominant from the start and outshot the Generals 40-16 in the game. Helena jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening period with goals from Tyler Bloom and Harlan Wojtusik, who would both end up with multi-point games. Early in the 2nd period, the Bighorns made it 3-0 thanks to a power play goal from Andrew Deskin. The Generals netted their lone goal later in the 2nd period on a nice backhand tally from Sean Gorman. In the 3rd period, the Bighorns put the game on ice with another power play goal, this time from Camden Cunningham. Keaton French made 15 saves in the win, while Luke Fundator made 36 saves in the loss. With the win, Helena wins Pool B and will face the Pool A runner-up Granite City Lumberjacks in the second Semi-Final on Saturday.
