Minnesota National Invitational, Saturday 6:45pm

Despite falling behind 2-0 after four and one-half minutes of play, the boys from Wisconsin never gave up and scored five consecutive goals to earn a hard-fought 5-2 win over the Minnesota U18 team, a squad that is comprised of the best juniors in Minnesota.

The game had a rocky start as Minnesota tallied just 26 ticks into the contest when Dan Pemberton rifled a shot from the top of the right circle that beat TW goalie Mark Lambrecht high on the glove side. Nick Stoskopf and Micah Ranum were credited with assists on the play.

Ethan Prow made it 2-0 when he collected a cross-ice pass from Stoskopf and buried a tough angle shot from the low left side that beat Lambrecht high on the stick side. Pat Moore also got an assist.

At that point, TW rolled up its collective sleeves and went to work.

Just 27 seconds later, Nathan Trannel knocked in a rebound from the low right side to make it 2-1 at the 5:08 mark. Max McCormick and Shayne McLaughlin were given helpers on the power play goal, which was TW’s first in 13 tries during the tournament. The period ended with Minnesota having a slight 10-9 shot edge.

TW fired up its fans when Dylan Dock scored a goal in traffic just 1:53 into the second to tie the contest at two. Hard-working Neil Klingensmith earned a helper on the play.

Minnesota replaced goalies at 11:28, when Dom DeGuiseppi (16 saves) was removed in favor of Alex Lyon. Any thoughts of scoring on the “cold” goalie were quickly dispelled as Lyon made several clutch saves late in the period.

Each team had two power play chances in the second, but were unable to convert as the period ended with both teams knotted at two. TW had a huge shot edge (18-6) in a period where they clearly dominated.

TW would get to Lyon three times in the third period.

The first came at 3:38 when Max Strasser re-directed Chris Bishop’s blast from the right point to give TW a 3-2 lead.

The game remained a nail-biter until Dustin Klitzke ripped a shot from the slot on a nice pass from Calvin Richardson to make it 4-2 at 12:22.

McCormick finished the scoring with an empty-netter at 16:59, with assists to Alex Tesensky and Trannel.

Lambrecht ended with 20 saves while Lyon stopped 22 of 24 shots for Team Minnesota.

TW closes out the tournament with Sunday’s 12:15pm game with North Dakota. A Michigan win (over Team Minnesota seniors) combined with a TW win will give Wisconsin the inaugural Minnesota NIT championship.

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