Offense Highlights Day 1 of Top Prospects
by Michael Seitz
White 6 @ Black 4 - Team White rode a five-goal third period to power passed Team Black 6-4. Black opened the scoring just 4:57 into the game as Binghamton’s Ethan Miller scored. The contest entered the first intermission at that 1-0 score. White grabbed the tying goal about 14 minutes into the middle frame. Wisconsin’s Justin Funk grabbed White’s first tally. Team Black then retook the lead just 1:54 after the Funk goal. Miller’s Binghamton teammate, Jason DiMatteo, untied the game as Black had a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes. The third period saw an avalanche of goals for Team White. That included three straight markers to start the frame. Another Wisconsin Woodsman found the back of the net as Hugh Deinema tied the game at two 3:33 into the third. Next it was Funk giving White the lead with his second goal of the game. St. Louis’ Brayden Davis potted the third Team White goal in just a 3:16 span to put his side ahead 4-2. Team Black fought back, but the teams ended up trading more goals apiece to end the game. For Black it was a pair of Alexandria players in Eli Fletcher and Caleb Waller scoring. For White it was Peoria’s Wyatt Duke cashing in before Davis closed the book with his second goal of the game. Tanner Bonjernoor and Nick Hansen split the game in net for Team White. Bonjernoor stopped eight of the nine shots he faced while Hansen made 13 stops on 16 tries. Charlie Donoghue made 35 saves in 41 tries for Team Black.
Yellow 10 @ Blue 3 - Team Yellow steamrolled Team Blue 10-3. Blue opened the scoring, however, as Helena’s Chase Berg found the back of the net. Yellow then rattled off four consecutive goals. New Mexico’s Dante Hunziker tied the game for Team Yellow before Tulsa’s Austin Tyler gave his team the lead. Issa Murakami, Hunziker’s New Mexico teammate, was next to score for Yellow before Texas’ Jake Malzone made it 4-1. That was where the score sat after 20 minutes. New Mexico continued to represent in the game as Max Arlt found the scoresheet. However, the goal was for Team Blue to cut Yellow’s lead to two. Like the first period, Team Yellow rattled off multiple consecutive goals. A pair of Louisiana Drillers, Brody Neish and Jake Bergstrom, got in on the action before El Paso represented itself with a Joseph Gutierrez tally. Yellow led 7-2 at the second intermission. For the third consecutive period, Team Blue scored first in the frame. This time Sheridan’s Vincent Leaf found the back of the net. Also, for the third consecutive period, Team Yellow scored multiple times in a row to answer the initial Blue marker. Hunziker and Gutierrez each grabbed their second goals of the game while Texas Roadrunner representative Charles Blake also scored. Both teams had their goaltender play roughly 30 minutes apiece. Robert Pogosyan stopped 10 of the 12 shots he faced, and Gavin Morris made nine saves on 10 attempts for Team Yellow. Kaden Rhyder went 15/20 in net while Dylan Posch was 21/26 between the pipes for Team Blue.
