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NDA powers past New Richmond in Red Flint River City Meltdown

By Michael Trzinski, 11/25/11, 6:21PM CST

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Tritons score three power play goals in win

With just under one minute left in the first period, the New Richmond Tigers had to feel pretty good about themselves, with a 2-1 lead over the top-ranked Notre Dame Academy Tritons in the opening contest of the Red Flint River City Meltdown held at Eau Claire Hobbs Ice Arena. 

A few seconds later, the Tigers' Austin Zywiec was hit with a two minute minor plus a ten-minute misconduct penalty. And 16 seconds into the power play NDA's Brett Gruber knocked the puck past NR goalie Jacob Hilby to tie the game at two and take the momentum away from the Tigers.

Notre Dame would go on to score a pair of goals in the last two periods for a 6-2 victory.

The game didn't start so good for New Richmond, as Kaleb Kier picked up a penalty just eight seconds into the game for tripping. Jarod Zirbel made the Tigers pay when he stuffed the puck past Hilby for a power play goal, with assists going to Jason Reynolds and Tim Davison.

The pace of the game slowed down a little, or perhaps the Tigers got their legs under them as they skated shift-for-shift with the Tritons in the middle part of the period.

Nate Jones tied the game for NR when he punched in a rebound while on a power play at 11:10 of the period. Max Skatrud and Kier were given helpers on the play.

Just over three minutes later, the trio combined to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead when Kier pounded home a rebound, with assists to Skatrud and Jones at 14:30.

Then when it looked like the Tigers were going to reach intermission with a lead, Gruber scored his power play goal with just 20 seconds left in the stanza. Mason Appleton and Grant Kluesner notched assists on the play to make it 2-2 as the Zamboni came out to clean the ice.

SHOTS: NDA 16, NR 8

The Tritons came out of the locker room re-energized and grabbed the lead back in less than three minutes. Riley Christensen grabbed a loose puck in the slot and ripped a shot that just grazed the bottom of the crossbar for a 3-2 lead at 2:41. Zirbel got an assist.

The lead would increase to 4-2 at 6:12 when Gruber scored his second goal on a breakaway, with assists to Appleton and Will Woodward.

The Tigers had a couple man-advantages in the middle of the period, but failed to convert as the two-goal lead held up through the end of the period.

SHOTS: NDA 12, NR 9

The Tritons put the game away with two goals in a span of 1:31 halfway through the third.

Christensen scored his second goal at 7:06 while on the power play. Reynolds and Zirbel earned assists on the play. Then at 8:37, Steven Phillips snuck in from the right corner into the slot and ripped a shot that appeared to go between Hilby's blocker and body before it hit the back of the net. Appleton and Gruber continued their point-scoring ways with assists.

The last minute of play got ugly as five penalties were dished out, but neither team scored as the final horn went off in a Triton's victory.

SHOTS: NDA 13, NR 10

For the game Chris Nell stopped 25 shots in a winning effort, while Hilby played well in making 35 saves.

NDA moves on to the championship game at 2:00pm on Saturday against Wausau West, while New Richmond will take on host Eau Claire Memorial in the consolation game at 11:30am.