The Pine City Area Dragons hockey team got back on track with a 5-0 win over Legacy Christian Academy on Thursday night at the Civic Center.
Things started out slow for Pine City who was tied with the Lions at the end of the first period. But seven minutes into the second period that Dragons were able to crack the tie with a nice goal from George Miller. Miller had a ton of opportunities prior to that but Legacy's Freshman goalie, Christian Mitchell, was playing the best game of the season.
About five minutes later, Pine City added a second goal. This time it was senior Joey Mikyska who scored his team leading ninth goal of the season. Dominic Trierweiler added a third goal with just a minute left in the period. This was Trierweiler's first varsity goal.
After the second period head coach Grant Nicoll told me he was not letting off the gas pedal and that he was hoping to add a couple more goals to not only seal the game but to give them some momentum heading into Friday's game. The Dragons were able to do that adding goals by Kyle Wiener and Peyton Smetana. Smetana was able to get his first varsity goal with just thirty seconds into the game capping off the 5-0 victory.
Alex Laven was perfect in net saving all 14 shots getting his first win of the season and first shutout too.
Head coach Grant Nicoll said, "The Varsity team followed suit and had a dominating performance as well. The boys were a little handcuffed to start and we struggled to score goals the entire night. Hats off the the goalie from Legacy as he played probably his best game of his life. Along with 55 shots, we also hit at least 5 posts and missed the net at least 15-20 times. Other than a second period flurry of shots where our goaltender stepped up and kept them off the scoreboard, pretty much all of the play was in our offensive end. We seen 2 guys get their 1st varsity goals as well as 2 others get their 1st varsity points. All in all it was a good night for Dragon Hockey."
The Dragons are now 4-7-1 on the year and they are on the road Friday night with a huge Section 5A matchup against Sauk Rapids-Rice.
Scoring
George Miller - 1g, 1a
Kyle Wiener - 1g
Dom Trierweiler - 1g (1st Career Varsity Goal)
Peyton Smetana - 1g (1st Career Varsity Goal)
Dusty Bergstrom - 2a
Jordan Stich - 1a
Gabe Westbrook - 1a
Parker Sell - 1a
Dereck Trierweiler - 1a
Jared Carpenter - 1a (1st Career Varsity point)
Seth Linnell - 1a (1st Career Varsity point)
Alex Laven - 14 saves on 14 shots
Listen to our postgame interview with Grant Nicoll and Dominic Trierweiler here: https://www.wcmpradio.com/interviews
