By Rocky Wiles

On the road over the Thanksgiving holiday, the Bronchos found the road was anything but forgiving as the University of Central Oklahoma Bronchos suffered three consecutive close loses to Minot State in North Dakota.

On Thanksgiving night, UCO went up by a score of 4-1 on the strength of a pair of Ray Wingfield goals. But the Bronchos were besieged by the penalty bug and allowed the Minot State Beavers back into the game. Several 5-3 opportunities allowed the Beavers to knot the score at 5-5 at the end of regulation. “It seemed that we played a man down the entire second half of the game, including the overtime”, head coach, Craig McAlister said. With only 6 seconds left in regulation, Kyle Hirsch was whistled for an interference penalty and Minot State was able to convert the man-advantage to an overtime goal for a 6-5 win.

Friday night at the Minot State Fair Grounds, saw the Minot State Beavers take a two goal lead into the first intermission. The Bronchos stormed back in the 2nd period with two powerplay goals coming from a Shawn Steggles blast and a Robbie Deubel rebound goal. Kevin Fukala finished the 2nd period blitz 40 seconds later with another rebound goal off a Eric Jensen shot.

Minot State knotted the game on a blue line floating wrist shot from the Beavers’ Brady Johnson, that got by Broncho goaltender, Justin Sgro. The Beavers’ Jarad Eagles sacrificed his body with a hit from AJ Alfrey to give a nifty pass to Scott Arnold who beat Sgro with a strong move to the post.

The pressure from that point on was all Bronchos as they continued to rain shots on the Beaver net, but all were turned back. Minot State eventually got an empty net goal with 5 seconds remaining to preserve their win, 5-3.

Game 3 concluded the final set of games on Saturday night, and the Bronchos once again saw a back and forth game. Brent Block opened the scoring with a rocket shot over the glove of Beaver goalie, Brett Thomas. The Beavers and Bronchos traded goals and the score was knotted at 2-2 at the end of the 2nd period.

The 3rd period was a wild ride of up and down emotions as the Bronchos took a 4-2 lead, only to see Minot State come back and tie the game. With 30 seconds left in the 3rd period, UCO’s Mike Haszto was whistled for a penalty in front of the UCO net, putting Minot State at a man advantage. With 0.2 seconds remaining left in regulation, an errant pass across the Broncho slot hit the Beavers, McGregor in the shin pads and bounced into the Broncho net for a Beaver win 5-4.

“The teams were obviously evenly matched and all three games could of gone either way”, head coach, Bernie Lynch said. “I am impressed with the tenacity of our team to battle each game and get the lead, especially on the road in a hostile environment. But we must find a a way to weather the storm and protect the lead, McAlister said. It’s a tough lesson to learn for this freshman dominated team, but this will only make us stronger.”