The Milwaukee Power went into the weekend 4-0 with a tough test in front of them in the Alexandria Blizzard. The Power didn't have a lot of film to study on the Blizzard as they had played one game so far but the Blizzard had four games to look at on the Power. "Some coaches believe in film and some don't, I'd rather have it than not and I think our film sessions have been a big part of us being able to make adjustments and have the guys be able to see the things they couldn't at game speed going all the way back to our scrimmage with Concordia," said Austin Keiser, Assistant Coach. "We had just the one game on Alexandria and we used what we could to try to prepare for a few things they might do but it really comes down to controlling what we can and dictating the game by doing the little things like winning face-offs and staying out of the box."The first period of the weekend was an offensive explosion by the Power with three unanswered goals to shock the Blizzard. Maris Graudins started the flurry of goals by burying a rebound off a long shot from Alexander Kelsall, which put his goal total to six on the season. The next goal was on the power-play by Logan Geisness off a rebound he picked up in the slot as Ben Beversdorf caused commotion in front of the Alexandria net. The third goal for the Power was scored by the new-comer, Ethan Dabbs, on the power-play and again off a rebound that was initiated by a Chuck Bay shot. Good things were happening as the Power were putting pucks on net and had the net front presence to take advantage of the rebounds. "Not every goal has to be pretty, they all add up the same way on the scoreboard whether its a rocket or a rebound," said Fred Berry, Head Coach.
Alexandria would score with less than a minute left in the first to cut the lead to two. Milwaukee would score the next two goals in the second, the first by Chuck Bay that came off another rebound, the other was Geisness' second goal of the game off a pass from Ben Beversdorf. The Power offense was firing on all cylinders. The Blizzard made a goalie switch that would give Alexandria a bit of a lift as they then scored two goals, less than a minute and a half apart from each other, that cut the lead to two. The Power came out in the third and locked things down as they only took one penalty compared to five in the second period. No more goals were scored by either side and Aaron Dickstein picked up his fifth win of the season to lead all goalies in the NA3. Three Stars & Hard Hat Third Star: #3 Ben Beversdorf Second Star: #20 Ethan Dabbs First Star: #10 Logan Geisness JS Quality Construction Hard Hat Player of the Game: #6 Ryan Payne
The Power, now 5-0, had to take on a Blizzard team that wouldn't be caught off guard like they were the night before. Alexandria made some big lineup changes for the second game including not dressing either goalie from the night before. "We knew we couldn't sleep on Alexandria, the second game was going to be very different and we told our guys that if they expected it to be as easy to put up 3 goals and have the lead all night that we would be handing them the game," said Austin Keiser. Tempers were running hot as both teams had trouble staying out of the box and both sides gave up power-play chances by taking bad penalties all night long. The first period was a scoreless deadlock with both sides not reaching double-digits with shots on net. Just under five-minutes into the second Jack Westlund got his first goal of the season to give Alexandria a one goal lead that felt unbreakable. The Power had good chances in the second but every bounce seemed to not go their way as they couldn't get anything by Ben Vutci. In the third period it was more of the same until Jake Berry took over the game. Berry forced a turnover in his own zone and made a pass up to Graudins in the neutral zone that he tapped on for Dabbs who skated into the Alexandria zone and fed it across to Bay for a clean shot to beat Vutci. Less than three-minutes later Berry would pick up a pass from Geisness, on his own blue line, and take it all the way to the left circle and fire a dart for the upper right corner to give the Power the lead with less than nine-minutes to go. Caleb Beversdorf would add some insurance on the power-play as he buried a rebound to put the Power up by two with just over four-minutes to go.
Aaron Dickstein was able to lock it down with a great third period that kept the Power in the game. Once they grabbed the lead he and the defense kept it from being in doubt as he picked up his sixth win of the season to put the Power to 6-0 and alone atop the NA3. "I am so proud of not only these young men for choosing to come to play here, being All-In, and coming together as a team but also everyone that has been involved to get us to this point from our ownership to our coaching staff, the business staff, our interns, our partners, our billets, and all our volunteers that have put in the countless hours of effort and investment to make this all a reality," said Chase Ernst, President of Hockey Operations. "You always want to have the mentality that you are going to win every game you play but to be able to stand here and say 6-0 for an organization that didn't exist five months ago is such a validation for everything we have done up until now and we will continue to do in our climb for the remaining 41 games of this regular season and beyond." Three Stars & Hard Hat Third Star: #21 Chuck Bay Second Star: #30 Aaron Dickstein First Star: #14 Jake Berry JS Quality Construction Hard Hat Player of the Game: #8 Mason Evans Looking Ahead The Power will take on the Coulee Region Chill on Sunday the 30th at Wilson Ice Arena at 4PM. The Central Division opponent makes their second trip to Milwaukee this month after defeating the Peoria Mustangs 6-1 for their first win this past Sunday. The Power expect another good game from the Chill as they had the lead going into the third period before the Power put up three unanswered goals. The ticket booth will open at 3PM and you can buy your tickets ahead of time by clicking here. Don't forget to get your game-day exclusive Power merchandise: Inaugural Season T-Shirt, Power Hat, and Power Puck in the Wilson lobby. Check out our new merchandise online by clicking here.
