Alexandria skates past Willmar, sweeps series
WILLMAR -- The Willmar Cardinals fell to Alexandria 4-2 Tuesday, but could take encouragement on several fronts.
They scored twice on Matt Hemingway, Alexandria's nearly air-tight netminder. Hemingway had blanked Willmar 5-0 on Dec. 20.
And their aggressive play led to a 39-28 advantage in shots on goal.
The loss ended a two-game win streak with Brainerd in town for the only meeting of the season on Friday.
A goal by Liam Johnson from Jay Bredberg and Jake Sobieck made it 1-1 at 10:39 of the first.
It was 4-1 after two periods when Ross Thompson scored on a man-advantage as time expired.
Rory Schneider, assisted by Brian Klein, got one back early in the third, but Hemmingway turned away the 18 other shots on goal that period.
Ben Lietch rejected 24 shots in the Willmar goal.
Alexandria 4, Willmar 2
Alexandria (8-3, 12-4) 1 0 1 -- 2
Willmar (2-8, 6-10) 2 2 0 -- 4
FIRST PERIOD - Alx: Tyler Ostendorf (Cody Rieland), 7:04 ... Wil: Liam Johnson (Jay Bredberg, Jake Sobieck), 10:39 ... Alx: Tyler Resch (Ross Thompson, Casey Vangsness), 16:02
SECOND PERIOD - Alx: Marvin Wensman (unassisted), 11:29 ... Alx: Thompson (unassisted), pp,17:00
THIRD PERIOD - Wil: Rory Schneider (Brian Klein), 4:21
GOALIE SAVES - Alexandria: Matt Hemmingway 9-10-18-37... Willmar: Ben Lietch 8-10-6-24
