Moorhead, South skate to 1-1 tie

You could practically hear Fargo South's strategy:

Go ahead, the Bruins dared, keep the puck in our zone. We can wait.

The offer was too tempting; Moorhead got suckered in.

Set on clogging its defensive zone and paying little mind to offense, Fargo South drew the Spuds into a 1-1 draw in prep boys hockey Saturday at John E. Carlson Coliseum.

Despite being outshot 41-17 by Moorhead, ranked No. 10 in Minnesota Class 2A, the Bruins sneakily dictated play.

"It's tough to score, too, when you always have the puck in that end," Spuds coach Dave Morinville said. "They just shelled around the net and didn't give up any rebounds or second shots. And when we did get a clean shot it usually hit a stick or a pad or something.

"If anything, we played into their hands. I'd have done the same thing."

All of the evening's offense occurred within a two-minute span of the second period.

And neither goal was conventional.

South (3-4-2) struck first, as junior Ryan Nelson knocked the puck into an open net, the result of Moorhead goalie Sam Walstad venturing out to coral a loose puck.

Just 1:45 later, the Spuds pulled even when a wrister by Jace Foss popped off the stick hand of Bruins goalie Stew Leitch, sailed over the keeper's head and into the net.

And that was it.

Leitch finished with 40 saves and his defense allowed very few rebounds.

"We knew Moorhead is a great offense team so we had to play great defensive hockey," Leitch said, "try to dump the puck and get some chances were we could.

"Our record doesn't show how hard we work. A tie is disappointing, but with a team of big stature like Moorhead, it's satisfactory."

The Spuds' dissatisfaction was obvious in the postgame.

They were physical, at times dominant -- two Moorhead goals were disallowed.

But they got few open-ice chances on the small ice sheet, converting none.

South's smart strategy and a Friday victory over St. Cloud Tech left the Spuds dragging themselves back across the Red River.

"The thing that decided the whole game was the first period," said Morinville, whose team fell to 0-1-2 on the second night of back-to-back contest. "We didn't play very well. We had an emotional game the night before, but we still needed to show up and play.

"I'm sure it's a big game for them (the Bruins) and you think it'd be a big game for us, too. But last night was our big game, it's a section game."

That's no disrespect meant to South, Morinville added.

Presumably, none taken as the rival coaching staffs made plans to meet for hot wings.

This victory, done their way, was big for the Bruins.

"We work hard, we work together, and we're having fun," South head coach Dean Wilson said. "If we can raise our level with their level, that's playing good hockey."

FIRST PERIOD: No scoring.

SECOND PERIOD: 1, FS, Nelson 4:50. 2, M, Foss (M. Becker, N. Deutz), 6:08.

THIRD PERIOD: No scoring.

OVERTIME: No scoring.

Goalie saves: M, Walstad 3-8-3-2--16. FS, Leitch 6-16-10-8--40.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Terry Vandrovec at (701) 241-5548