The Minnesota Magicians (4-2-2) hosted the Coulee Region Chill (3-3-0) over the weekend, winning the Friday night contest before falling on Saturday night. The Magicians now occupy sole possession of third place in the Midwest Division of the North American Hockey League (NAHL) early in the season. Coming up this week for the Magicians is a busy slate of games. The Janesville Jets come to town later this week for games on October 6th (7:15 PM) and 7th (7:00 PM) at Richfield Ice Arena, and the Cloquet Wilderness will be in Richfield on Saturday October 8th in the first meeting between the two teams of the regular season.
On Friday night at Richfield Ice Arena, the Chill struck first to take an early lead in the first period. The Magicians struck back with a goal from Stillwater native Jake Cass (Brendan Skarda, Tanner Tweten) before the end of the period, but the Chill scored again to make it 2-1 heading into the first intermission. In the second period, Timo Walther (John Siebenaler) scored to tie the game. After Coulee Region was able to take back the lead, the Magicians took control with goals from Cam Buh (Nikita Kozyrev, Matt Denman) and Mitch Slattery (Andrew Kangas, Travis Brown) to close out the period. In the final frame, the Magicians added two more goals, the first from Nathan Nelsen (Caleb Hite, Hunter Lellig) followed by Slattery’s second of the evening assisted by Will hammer and Tanner Tweten. The final score of the game was 6-3 in favor of the Magicians. Goaltender Daniil Gerasimov made 30 saves in the victory.
On Saturday night, the Magicians sought to earn their first sweep of the young season. In a back and forth contest, the Chill struck early and took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. The Magicians bounced back in the second period, scoring three consecutive goals from Andrew Kangas (Tommy Altounian, Hunter Lellig), Will Hammer (Mitch Slattery, Brendan Skarda), and Zack Taylor (Caleb Hite, Nathan Nelsen) to take a 3-2 advantage before the Chill tied up the game heading into the third. In the final period, the Chill were able to find the back of the net four times to win the game. The lone Magicians goal of the third period came from John Siebenaler (Tanner Tweten, Jake Cass), and the final score of the game was 7-4.
With the split, the Magicians now have 10 points through 8 games played and currently sit in third place in the Midwest Division. Up next this week is a pair of games vs. the Janesville Jets on October 6th and 7th, followed by a game vs. the Cloquet Wilderness on October 8th. Each game is at Richfield Ice Arena, tickets can be found at www.wisconsinjuniorhockey.com!
