Warriors Battle No. 6 Jamestown; Earn Tie in Weekend Finale
JAMESTOWN, N.D. – Coming off back-to-back weekends of wins, Midland University traveled up to North Dakota for its first big test of the season as it took on No. 6 University of Jamestown on Friday and Saturday. The Jimmies were dominant on their home ice in the series opener, winning 6-0. A refocused and determined Warriors team led most of the way on Saturday before playing to a 2-2 tie.
FRIDAY: Jamestown 6, Midland 0
The Jimmies had an aggressive attack on Friday night, putting up 25 shots on net in the opening period alone. They netted the first goal of the contest while on a powerplay chance just over a minute into the period a 1:05. With 28 seconds to go before intermission, they tacked on the second goal to lead 2-0 into the break.
Despite Midland slowing the Jamestown offense in the second, it found itself down two more goals just past the seven-minute mark of the period. The Warriors' offense put up 12 shots on goal but were held off the scoreboard by the Jimmies' netminder.
In the final period, Jamestown ramped up its attack once more with 22 shots on target. A pair made their way into the netting as they capped off a 6-0 win.
For the game, Nahuel Veyan had 54 saves while his counterpart collected 27 saves.
SATURDAY: Jamestown 2, Midland 2 (UJ wins shootout)
A reenergized Warriors' team took the ice on Saturday as they went prospecting for a series split. Tommy Wardas put Midland on the board with a first-period goal from Ryan Donovan at the 15:09 mark. Things looked good for the visitors as the Jimmies' were held scoreless through the first 20 minutes of play.
Coming out of the intermission, Jamestown picked up its aggressiveness in the offensive zone. The Jimmies were able to put up 27 shots in the frame but were kept off the board by Liam Tereposky who had a stellar night in between the pipes.
As the teams came out for the third period, the upset bid by Midland was starting to gain more traction. With just over 17 minutes gone by, Zach Weber scored the second goal of the night off an assist from Wardas to put the Warriors up 2-0.
With time starting to wind down, Jamestown dumped its goalie for an extra attacker with just under two minutes to go. With 90 seconds to play, the Jimmies found a gap in the defense to pull within a goal. After gaining control of the faceoff, the pulled their goalie off once more. With 1:15 to go in the game, they found the equalizing goal which would lead to an overtime period.
In an extra five-minute session of 3-on-3 action, the Warriors were able to stop all six shots the Jimmies had on net. Midland was unable to counter with a shot or goal and the game finished in a tie.
Per conference guidelines, the teams did take part in a shootout which has no bearing on the standings. Jamestown was able to convert on two of its three chances while Midland got just one shot into the net in the shootout.
Tereposky finished the game with 65 saves through 65 minutes of action. Jamestown's counterpart had a total of 27 saves for the game.
Midland (7-8-1, 7-5-1 MCH) will be back in action next weekend as they play Iowa State (4-2-0) in a non-conference series. The first game will be played on Friday afternoon in Fremont, Nebraska at 3:00 p.m. before transitioning to Ames, Iowa for Saturday night's finale at 7:45 p.m.