The Wausau Cyclones, formerly the Wausau River Wolves, came to Milwaukee for a two game tilt on Saturday and Sunday. The Power we’re coming off of a tough 4-3 loss to Rochester on Monday night while the Cyclones had swept St. Louis the previous weekend.
Milwaukee started Spencer Northway in net on Saturday and the Cyclones would start Zach Dosan coming off a shutout performance against the Blues. It was an even contest through regulation and both goaltenders stopped every shot they faced. Dosan stood on his head for the Cyclones time and time again as the Power seemed to have the better scoring opportunities but couldn’t get the puck past the Wausau netminder.
The game would go to overtime for some 3 on 3 action but neither side could put the game away resulting in a shootout. Northway showed great patience as he stopped the first 5 of the Cyclones shooters. The sixth man up for Wausau, Luke Anderson, was able to find twine past Northway’s blocker. The Power shooters were unable to crack the code on Dosan as he denied all 6 of them to take the win and his second shutout in a row after facing 40 shots. In one of the rarest occurrences in hockey, because the game went scoreless into the shootout, Northway recorded his first NA3HL shutout on 30 shots in his second outing for Milwaukee. The Power got one point for having taken the game into overtime.
On Sunday afternoon Milwaukee would go right back to Northway in net and Wausau would start Mitch Miscevich. The scoring script was a drastic change for the rematch as Max Erstad scored his first goal of the season on a great feed from Teddy Marion from below the goal line just past the 7-minute mark, Tommy Kundinger would get the secondary assist. The Cyclones would tie the game four and a half minutes later on Hayden Shoemake goal. For the second game time in less than 24 hours the Power and Cyclones were tied heading into the locker room after the first.
The second period wouldn’t see any change to the score until under 4-minutes to go when Erstad would get his second goal of the day on a pass from Ben Cremers below the goal line right to his wheel house for a snap shot that went rocketing past Miscevich’s blocker, Kundinger would get another secondary assist. Milwaukee would carry a one goal lead into the locker room but Wausau start the third will almost a full length power-play chance.
After Cremers served his 2-minutes he would score his 4th goal of the season after Michael Dalaly won a face-off down in the Cyclones end and put a shot on net that rebounded right to Cremers to give the Power a two goal lead. Shoemake would respond for Wausau to cut the deficit back to one 4-minutes later. The Cyclones would get a face-off in the Power end with just under 2-minutes remaining as they tried to misdirect with sending Miscevich back on the ice to have him sprint off as six skaters headed to the face-off circle. O’Neal would win the draw cleanly to Mason Ausmus who then fired from his own goal line perfectly splitting both posts at the other end for his second goal of the season. The Power kept the pressure on as in the final minute Erstad would complete the hat-trick with his third of the day on a Nate Stone pass after drawing the focus away from Erstad, Marion would get the secondary assist having broken up a Wausau pass in the neutral zone that sent the puck towards Stone.
The Power would win with a final score of 5-2 to pick up two more points to win the series and take 3rd place in the Central Division. Northway stopped 39 of the 41 shots he faced to claim his first win and Miscevich stopped 37 of 42 in his first loss of the season.
“We really had to battle today after a tough loss last night and today came down to the last couple minutes even though we won by 3,” said Teddy Marion, Power Captain. “We have some things to work on this like cleaning up our D-zone but the guys worked hard both nights and Spencer gave us two great games in net.”
Doctors of Physical Therapy 3 Stars of the Game
3rd Star – Ben Cremers
2nd Star – Spencer Northway
1st Star – Max Erstad
Coach’s Pub ‘N’ Grill Hard Hat Player of the Game
Gunner Vignaroli
The Power are headed to St. Louis next weekend for their first road series of the year. The Jr. Blues have had a tough start as they sit in last place in the Central going 0 for 6 to start the season. Milwaukee will have to get off to a fast start next weekend to have success as they have not won a game in St. Louis in three seasons.
