Drillers, Power Move on to Fraser Cup Final
by Brian Gornick
Louisiana and West Bend celebrate advancing to the Fraser Cup Final
Louisiana 5 @ New Mexico 4 - The Louisiana Drillers survived a surging comeback by the New Mexico Ice Wolves to advance to the Fraser Cup Finals. Exploding offensively with three goals in the first 12 minutes, the Drillers first goal coming 27 seconds into regulation from the far point off Dayton Ruppel’s stick. He’d be followed by team-leading scorer Jake Bergstrom and Alexander Thomas to fill out the rest of the early goals. The Ice Wolves earned some reprieve as Braeden Whitesell scored six seconds after Thomas to make it 3-1, but the reprieve was short lived: Carson Spear unassisted extended the lead back to three. Casper Rys Sakrisvold off a deflection scored the lone goal in the second, the Drillers lead extended to four after two periods. For most of the third, it looked like the Drillers had the game closed out, save for an early Ice Wolves goal from Jake Wenner. In the last two minutes of regulation, the deficit shrunk to one goal thanks to Connor Hanley and Braeden Whitesell giving their team a fighting chance. This comeback fell short, with the Drillers surviving to play one more game for a chance to hoist the Fraser Cup.
West Bend 2 @ Granite City 0 - For the first time in franchise history the West Bend Power are heading to the Fraser Cup Finals after besting the Granite City Lumberjacks with a shutout. Both teams in the first period registered single digit shots in a defensive slugfest, Adam Prokop and Trent Peterson standing strong in net for the Power and Lumberjacks, respectively. The second looked to be the same, but the stalemate ended after Trace Shumlas picked up the rebound off a shot from Michael Maillette, scoring 15:48 in the period. With the pressure ramped, the Lumberjacks were forced to pull their goaltender late to push for a better chance to tie the game. That hope was dashed with Teagan Scheurer scoring on the empty net for the game winning goal, sending his team on a collision course with the Louisiana Drillers for the Fraser Cup.
