Friday, February 14th (Prairie Lakes Ice Arena, Watertown, SD; AberdeenWings.com) On Friday, the Aberdeen Wings traveled to Watertown to play on the Shamrocks home ice. This would be the first meeting in a while for the Wings and Shamrocks since November.

Scoring would start right away at the 1:53 mark in the first period when Augustana commit Leonid Bulgakov would score on a one-timer chance from Gustas Zemaitis and Sebastian Lillsund. This would also mean that Leonid would score a goal in his 100th NAHL game, all 100 games being played with the Aberdeen Wings! After this goal, both teams would get chances on the Power Play, but the score would remain 1-0 in favor of the Wings heading into the second period.

The second period would see less penalty action than the first, especially for the Wings. The Wings would continue to out-shoot the Shamrocks, and at the 9:18 mark, Nikolai Tishkevich would score, getting assists from Nick Comfort and Luke Backel. After a bit of back and forth action, the Shamrocks would again get another penalty. Right as the Wings Power Play time was about to run out, Jibber Kuhl would get his 7th goal of the season while still on the Power Play, getting assists from Cade Moxham, and Ryder Many Grey Horses. The score would then be 3-0, with the Wings in the lead going into the third and final period of the night.

The third period would see a lot of action, as players would start to get a lot more chippy than they were in the beginning of the game. Things would start right at the 2:41 mark of the third period when a Checking From Behind call was made on Watertown’s Joe Rice, additionally giving him a 10 minute misconduct for the call. Because of the play, however, Luke Backel would also serve a Cross-Check, and chaos would ensue. The Wings would then be down a player for the rest of the game. Shortly after, the Wings would be able to extend their lead further when Sebastian Lillsund would be able to score, getting his 9th goal of the season, and also getting assists from Leonid Bulgakov and Grant Winkler. There would be a few more penalties before the game would end, which would give the Shamrocks a chance to set up a Power Play chance. Before the game could end, Cam Markham for the Shamrocks would score on the Power Play, leaving the score 4-1 for a Wings road win.

Damon Cunningham was in net for the Wings on Friday, stopping 32 of 33 shots sent his way.

______________________

Saturday, February 15th (Odde Ice Center, Aberdeen, SD; AberdeenWings.com) Saturday’s action in the Odde Ice Center would be a lot more thrilling than Friday’s, and unexpected to say the least.

The first period seemed to start a little slower than the night before. But, the Wings were able to score two goals in under two minutes to put themselves in a good position heading into the second period. They would get a Power Play to start the first period, but would not be able to capitalize on the moment. Instead, scoring would start at the 17:30 mark when Nikolai Tishkevich would get his 8th goal of the season, getting help from Nick Comfort and Bryce Johnson. As time was winding down, Briggs Orr was able to get a goal himself with assistance from Cooper Anderson and Charlie Burchfield. This goal came with just under three seconds left on the board. The Wings would head into the locker room with a lead of 2-0.

To start the scoring off in the third period, it would be Watertown’s Cater Sproule. After some more back and forth action, the Wings would be able to respond at the 13:52 mark when Sebastian Lillsund would score, with assists coming from Cooper Anderson and Gustas Zemaitis. This would be the final scoring chance, and action of the second period, leaving the score 3-1 with the Wings in the lead.

The third period of the game would be filled with scoring, action, and a goalie change for both teams. Both the Wings and the Shamrocks would start four on four because of coincidental roughing penalties taken by Aberdeen’s Cooper Anderson and Watertown’s Noah Sergott. Once both sides were at full strength, Reece Allman would get his first goal as a Wing, and his first NAHL goal! This goal would be assisted by Joey Mugaas and Charlie Burchfield. The Wings and the Shamrocks again would have some more back and forth action, but at the 9:44 mark, Carter Sproule would score for the Shamrocks, making the score 4-2 with the Wings still in the lead. Once the puck dropped after the Shamrocks goal, that is when the action and chaos would take place. It would start when Watertown’s Shae Gavin would get a Charging penalty, This would also create a scrum with Watertown’s Luke Gallo, and William Shephard getting mixed up with Aberdeen’s Sebastian Lillsund and Gavin Reed. All getting fighting penalties. While these were all taking place, Watertown’s goaltender, Phileas Lachat would skate down to meet Aberdeen’s goaltender, Willum Braun at the other end of the ice and they would also start fighting as well. After all were separated, penalties were accounted for, and other goalies were warmed up and in net, the game could resume. Right as the game resumed, it would be Ryder Many Grey Horses who would get the scoring started again. Jibber Kuhl and Gustas Zemaitis would be credited for assists. After, Zach Boren for the Shamrocks would respond, and before time could run out, Dmitrijs Dilevka would also score for the Shamrocks making the score 5-4, but the Wings winning, and sweeping the weekend.

Although the third was filled with penalties and fighting, Wings fans could see that at the end of the game, a long-standing tradition was brought back at the end of the game when a huddle was brought back to center-ice at the end of the game. Two teams battle it out, but come together at the end.

Willum Braun started in net for the Wings, stopping 15 of 17 shots he faced.

Damon Cunningham had to step in for the rest of the third period. Most of the time he was in net was for penalty kill, and saved 3 of 5 he faced.

Three stars of the night were Reece Allman (1 goal), Briggs Orr (1 goal), and Nikolai Tishkevich (1 goal).

We caught up with Head Coach Scott Langer to get his overall thoughts on the weekend, and his thoughts on the offensive plays made throughout the entire weekend.

“I liked the level of compete this past weekend. The team started slow on Friday night, but continued to get better every period throughout the weekend. Offensively we made plays and when you make plays is gives you a chance to score and win games.” said Head Coach Scott Langer

We were also able to talk to Assistant Coach Eric Hirschhaut, too, getting his thoughts on how he thought the Power Play looked over the weekend, and also his overall thoughts on the team after the weekend as a whole. He says “Overall, I thought Friday night we capitalized on our opportunities in a very tough environment down in Watertown. We scored on the Power Play, Penalty Kill, and at even strength which was a huge confidence boost for our group. We have been working on the Power Play a lot the last two weeks. Scott and I both were not fans of our first period and we got better in the second period, and as the game went on. Damon Cunningham was our best player on Friday night and made a lot of outstanding saves while shorthanded and at even strength to keep us in the lead.”

“Saturday was the best atmosphere in the Odde this season. I thought we were ery good for a majority of the game until we let Watertown back in it late in the third period. That’s a game where we look at the positives and learn from our mistakes that ended up in our net and move on with the 4 points from the weekend.” He ends with, “It’ll be another exciting weekend going on the road up to Bismarck. We will be missing a few players and will put our best foot forward on Friday night. We are looking forward to going into the WFW in Bismarck with some momentum.”

Now, the team will be heading up to Bismarck this upcoming weekend to take on the Bobcats, then will be going to Minot to take on the Minotauros the following weekend!