Despite outshooting the West Bend Power nearly two-to-one, the Rochester Grizzlies couldn’t solve goaltender Peter Burke, falling 4–1 Friday night at the Rochester Recreation Center.
After a tough week of practice from head coach Marty Raymond, Rochester came out firing in the opening frame, with a few high-danger chances against Burke.
It was deja vu from last Saturday’s contest, however, as the Grizzlies had the better first period, but found themselves down 1-0 off a bouncing puck from Grant Schiable (1) to give the Power the lead in the first intermission.
The second period played right into West Bend’s preferred style of hockey: structured, physical, and opportunistic.
Anytime the Grizzlies threatened, Burke had the answer, stopping all 26 shots he faced through 40 minutes.
Midway through the frame, tempers flared when Power forward Evan Burchardt collided with newly acquired goaltender Calum Keating in the crease, sparking a full line brawl between the two clubs.
When the dust settled, Rochester’s Mason Decker and West Bend’s Owen Miller were assessed game ejections, dealing a significant blow to the Grizzlies’ forward group.
The Power extended their lead late in the period when Adam Sexton (2) buried his own rebound on a 2-on-1 rush, giving Jason Woods’ squad a two-goal cushion heading into the third, a lead West Bend has yet to surrender this season.
Outshooting the Power 21-5 in the third period, Rochester was able to find twine off a highlight-reel goal from Jackson Bielenberg-Howarth (1) to cut the deficit in half.
The Grizzlies pushed hard late but couldn’t find the equalizer, surrendering two empty-net goals to drop their fourth straight divisional game and move to 5-5-0-0 on the season.
Burke finished the night with 42 saves on 43 shots, capping a dominant two-game stretch against Rochester with 81 saves on 83 total attempts.
On Saturday, the Rochester Grizzlies saw a plethora of offense as they snapped a four-game losing streak with a 6-3 win over the Wisconsin Woodsmen.
It was tough sledding to start the game once again for the black and gold, who couldn’t gain any momentum through the first five minutes of the contest.
Momentum can shift on a dime, however, as a huge Julian Mollerstrandh hit that resulted in a major did more good than harm to Marty Raymond’s squad.
Mason Decker (12) opened the scoring to give the Grizzlies their first opening goal of the contest in five games, before Wisconsin tied things up on a 5-on-3.
Despite giving up the goal on the penalty kill, Rochester did a phenomenal job killing off all but one second of the major penalty to Mollerstrandh and nearly all four minutes of a double minor to Ole Fevold.
Before the horn sounded, Briggs Knott (3) slipped one past Lleyton Jaschke to give Rochester the lead heading into the intermission.
That late goal was all the black and gold needed to run away with it, as it exploded for three goals in the second period, including two from Decker to complete his third hat-trick of the season.
Wisconsin found one late to make it a 5-2 contest heading into the third period, but it was too little too late for the Woodsmen.
The Woodsmen added a pair of tallies in the third, including one from Marty Raymond’s son, Paxton Raymond (1), but the black and gold held on for the 6-4 victory.
Calum Keating was solid once again between the pipes for the Grizzlies, stopping 10 of 11 shots in the first period while the team was shorthanded for nine consecutive minutes, and finished the contest with 20 saves to earn his first win with Rochester.
The win moves the Grizzlies to 6-5-0-0 on the season before they travel back to Tomah next Friday on Halloween.