Storm boys down Braves

Peter Lindblad recorded another hat trick and Will Johnson made 23 saves as the Morris Benson Area boys' hockey team defeated the Breckenridge/Wahpeton Braves 6-2 at the Lee Community Center in Morris Tuesday.

Tyler Hansen got the Storm off to a quick start when he scored on the first shift of the night, just 34 seconds into the game, with assists going to Lindblad and Jake Manska. Lindblad then added two unassisted goals at 11:10 on a delayed power play, and again at 13:44, and the Storm led 3-0 heading into the first period intermission.

Johnson made eight saves in the period and the Braves goalie made 10.

The Braves scored with just 1:37 left in the second period on a 5-on-3 power play to draw to within two goals. It looked like the Braves might close the gap further when the Storm received another penalty and the Braves had a 5-on-3 advantage again just seconds later. Hansen, however, stole the puck from two B/W players on a fore-check in the Braves' end and he passed to Lindblad who beat the goalie with just 1:07 remaining in the period to regain the three-goal advantage for MBA at 4-1.

Second period saves were eight for Johnson and seven for B/W.

The Braves scored the first goal of the third period at the 2:38 mark, but the Storm answered with the last two goals of the game to make the final score 6-2. Brady Valnes got the first goal for MBA on a power play with an assist going to Andreas Siggelin at 6:38 and Dustin Sauter continued his recent scoring surge with an unassisted goal on a breakaway at 7:10.

Johnson made seven more saves in the third with B/W stopping six Storm attempts.

MBA now takes an 8-6-1 record into a game on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Luverne. In the coming week they also have home games in Morris against Fargo Shanley at 6:30 on Tuesday, Feb. 3, and against Prairie Centre at 7 p.m. on Thursday.