MOORHEAD – When Bloomington Jefferson scored with 61 seconds remaining to tie No. 15-ranked Moorhead, Spuds junior right winger Jack Stensgard thought what many Spuds were thinking.
“Here we go again,” Stensgard said.
Only, the Spuds did not go to overtime again Saturday at the Moorhead Sports Center. Bloomington Jefferson celebrated the tying goal a tad too much, got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and Stensgard redirected a puck on net from Carson Kosobud with 8 seconds remaining to give the Spuds a 3-2 win.
“It was a huge relief,” Stensgard said. “It was nice to not go to overtime for the fifth time this year. A lot of guys stepped up and made plays and it was nice to finally put it away this time.”
Moorhead (7-4-2) was down three starters on Saturday due to game misconducts in the previous game. The backup Spuds showed no fear in the spotlight. In fact, they embraced it.
“We were missing three big players and we just came together as a team and knew we had to do the little things to get the win,” said Moorhead defenseman Zach Boutain, who picked up his first varsity point on an assist Saturday.
Sophomore Seth Benson was starting at left wing for one of the lost starters, and his redirect off a Boutain shot put Moorhead up 2-1 with 8:53 to go in the game. It was just the second varsity point for Benson. Boutain wasn’t the only one picking up his first varsity point, as Kosobud picked up his first varsity point on his assist on the game winner.
“Boutain, myself and Kosobud and Luke Olson, who also doesn’t normally play varsity, basically came through for us big,” Benson said. “It’s awesome to see how deep we are. To know that we can still win with other guys from (junior varsity) is huge. To know we can pull through and win a third period is pretty awesome.”
Moorhead coach Jon Ammerman had no doubt the fill-ins would come through for the Spuds.
“We believe one of our strengths is our depth,” Ammerman said. “We have a little bit of a next-man-up mentality and we had a few young guys that stepped up pretty big, especially at crucial times in the game.”
Bloomington Jefferson (7-6) struck first, 3:18 into the game, on a goal from Noah Ganske. Moorhead answered less than two minutes later when Trey Greene stuffed home his own rebound to tie the game.
“We did a good job of being resilient,” Ammerman said. “Even with that late goal by them, for us to take advantage of that opportunity was pretty big.”
It was Moorhead’s first win at home since Dec. 11 with two ties at home in between Saturday’s win.
Ammerman doesn’t care where the wins happen. Considering Bloomington Jefferson had won three straight and the game was eight seconds away from overtime, Ammerman would have taken the win outside in the bitter cold.
“A win is a win no matter where it happens,” Ammerman said. “We’re just happy we came out on top.”
FIRST PERIOD: 1, B, Ganske, 3:18. 2, M, Greene (Johnson), 4:41.
SECOND PERIOD: no scoring.
THIRD PERIOD: 3, M, Benson (Boutain, Fahrendorf), 8:07. 4, B, Wendorf (Lescarbeau, Robbel), 15:59 (extra attacker). 5, M, Stensgard (Kosobud, Odegard), 16:52 (pp).
SAVES: B, Waldron 9-9-15–33. M, Dittmer 10-12-5–27
