The Minnesota Magicians dominated last week, skating to victories over the Cloquet Wilderness and Coulee Region Chill to maintain a 2nd place spot in the NAHL’s competitive Midwest Division. In a rare midweek contest, the Magicians defeated in-state foe the Cloquet Wilderness by a score of 5-3. They followed up that victory with a 7-3 rout of the Coulee Region Chill on the road in La Crosse, Wisconsin. This week the Magicians play road games on Thursday and Friday before returning home to Richfield Ice Arena on Saturday night for a 7:15 PM game versus the Austin Bruins.
On Wednesday night in front of 17 NHL scouts and many more representing NCAA teams, the Magicians faced off against the Cloquet Wilderness on their home ice at Richfield Ice Arena. Farmington native John Siebenaler (Assist: Tommy Altounian) got the scoring started for the home team in the first period, but heading into the intermission the score was tied at a goal apiece. In the 2nd, the game remained close as Tommy Altounian’s goal (John Siebenaler, Matt Denman) was answered by the Wilderness to make the score 2-2 heading into the final period. In the third, the Wilderness briefly took a 3-2 advantage before the Magicians took control. Shortly after Cloquet scored to take the lead, Davis Kirkendall (Pieter von Steinbergs, Tommy Altounian) knotted the score once again. His goal was followed by two more in favor of the Magicians, the first from Will Hammer (John Siebenaler, Jake Cass) and the next from Mitch Slattery (John Siebenaler, Hunter Lellig). When the final buzzer sounded, the Magicians had themselves a 5-3 victory. Goaltender Ivan Prosvetov was solid throughout the outing, stopping 29 out of 32 shots.
On Friday night, the Magicians took a road trip to La Crosse, Wisconsin to face the Coulee Region Chill at Green Island Ice Arena. Two first period goals paved the way for a Magicians rout, as Will Hammer (John Siebenaler, Mitch Slattery) and Cam Buhl (Pavel Tkachkov, Nikita Kozyrev) scored to make the score 2-0 after one period of play. In the 2nd period, the Magicians added two more goals as Jarrett Lee (Brendan Skarda, Matt Denman) scored his first goal as a member of the Magicians and Will Hammer (Hunter Lellig, Mitch Slattery) got his third goal of the week. Coulee Region was able to strike a couple of times in the waning minutes of the second period and early third, but three more Magicians goals put the icing on the cake as Davis Kirkendall (Hunter Lellig, Tommy Altounian), Pavel Tkachkov (Nikita Kozyrev, Cam Buhl), and Mitch Slattery (Unassisted) all found the back of the net to complete a 7-3 win for the Magicians.
The Magicians return to home ice on Saturday November 19th as the Austin Bruins come to town for a 7:15 PM game. The first 100 kids through the doors get free adhesive mustaches in celebration of the Movember Campaign for men’s health awareness. Tickets are available at Richfield Ice Arena and online at www.wisconsinjuniorhockey.com.