Team Minnesota U18 scored four times in the first 5:51 and held on for a 7-3 win over Team Wisconsin in preliminary round MN NIT action Thursday evening at the Plymouth Ice Center.

The U18s scored just 20 seconds into the contest on a goal by Zach LaValle, assisted by Jake Guentzel.

A couple minutes later, Colin Hernon grabbed a pass from Matt Serratore on the back door and snicked the puck off the left post and into the net for a 2-0 lead at the 2:36 mark. Wyatt Schmidt was also credited with a helper.

After a TW penalty, Hans Gorowsky snuck down the left side and grabbed a pass from TJ Roo and tallied a power play goal at 4:14 to build a three-goal lead.

The U18s finished their first period scoring spree when Meirs Moore streaked down the right side and ripped a shot from the right dot past TW goalie Nate Eminger at 5:51 to make it 4-0.

"We came out slow, just kind of watching," said TW coach Tim Ebner. "It took us a little time to get going."

TW stepped up its game and scored the next goal to cut the lead to 4-1 at the 13:16 mark. Brady Burzynski rifled a shot from the low right circle that zipped past the glove of MN goalie David Zevnik and into the upper right corner, assisted by Jesse Tredinnick.

Perhaps caught gambling a bit late in the period, TW gave up a couple odd-man rushes but the U18s failed to score, and the period would end with a 4-1 score. MN held a 12-4 shot edge in the first 18 minutes of play.

"As we picked it up at the end of the period, we started doing the 'little things' better," said Ebner. 

The boys from Wisconsin came out to play in the second period, and although they missed a few chances, they scored midway through the period to cut the lead to 4-2. Eddie Matsushima grabbed his own rebound and zipped it past Zevnik at the 10:03 mark.

MN wiped out that short-lived optimism a couple minutes later with two rebound goals just 23 seconds apart by Dylan Zins and Will Peterson to increase the lead to 6-2. 

"We got back into the game, and then we just started watching again," noted Ebner. "We relaxed and just started skating up and down the ice, and you can't do that here. We had a ton of chances and we just didn't finish."

Jason Ford and Kyle Lee had a couple decent chances late in the period, but Zevnik stopped both efforts to deny the boys from TW.

TW dominated play the first 2/3 of the period and led in shots, 14-13, but trailed by four as they skated slowly to the locker room at the second break.

Roo scored on a rebound at the 2:57 mark of the third from the low left side as he flipped the puck over the outstretched right pad of Eminger--who had made the initial stop--to make the score 7-2.

Never quitting, Logan Murphy scored a hard-working goal when he got a rebound and slipped the puck past Zevnik as he tumbled to the ice to make it 7-3 at 8:13, accounting for the final tally of the game. Drew Otto and Jay Routheau got assists on the play.

The final shot count for the period was 13-7 in favor of the U18s.

Zevnik stopped 22 shots in the victory, while Eminger had 31 saves for TW. 

"We're just hoping to get better by tomorrow," stated Ebner. "We've got some things we have to fix and hopefully come in tomorrow night ready to play."

TW will take on the Minnesota Seniors at 8:00pm Friday evening. You can catch all the action on Wisconsin Prep Hockey.