WILLMAR — Michael Sweetland scored his 12th and 13th goals of the season to help lift the Willmar Warhawks to a 7-1 NA3HL victory over the Alexandria Blizzard on Friday night.
Sweetland, an 18-year-old from Stillwater, also has 10 assists in 17 games this season for the Warhawks, who have won four of five games since returning to action Jan. 15 after a nearly two-month hiatus because of pandemic restrictions.
Willmar also got two goals from Gavin Uckele. It was the first two of the season for the 19-year-old from Blissfield, Michigan. Ucekele started the season with the Chippewa Steel of the NAHL.
Lewis Rowan, Kaleb Miller and Jeremiah Konkel also scored goals for the WarHawks (8-10).
Will Pinney stopped 20 of 21 shots for the victory. Alexandria goaltender Joey Greilich was peppered with 55 shots, making 48 saves.
Willmar continues its homestand with a 7:10 p.m. game Saturday against the New Ulm Steel.
Willmar 7,
Alexandria 1
Alexandria (7-10-1-0) 0 1 0 — 1
Willmar (9-10-0-0) 2 3 2 — 7
FIRST PERIOD – (1) W: Jeremiah Konkel 4 (Kaleb Miller, Elbridge DeKraai) :14 … (2) W: Miller 2 (DeKraai, Konkel) 3:41. PENALTIES: none.
SECOND PERIOD – (3) W: Gavin Uckele 1 (Dylan Gajewski, Alex Kupka) 3:12 (pp) … (4) W: Michael Sweetland 12 (Jack Willis, Ethan Light) 9:45 … (5) W: Lewis Rowan 2 (Uckele, Zins) 14:57. PENALTIES: (1) A: Nikolai Rajala (holding-minor, 2 min) 1:24.
THIRD PERIOD – (6) A: Austin McNeil 8 (Cole Lehmann) 6:43 … (7) W: Uckele 2 (Ben Johnson) 13:24 (sh) … (8): W: Sweetland 13 (Austin Jozwick, Cole Wigestrand) 17:36. PENALTIES: (2) A: Carter Rieland (fighting-major, 5 min; served by Alex Heidenreich) 5:29 … (3) W: Isaiah Thomas (roughing-minor, 2 min) 5:29 … (4) W: Zins (interference-minor, 2 min) 11:44 … (5) A: Rajala (slashing-minor, 2 min) 15:32
GOALIE SAVES/SHOTS – Alexandria:Joey Greilich 48/55 … Willmar: Will Pinney 20/21
