Iroquois Chiefs End Playoff Run
The Varsity Chiefs played three games this past week. The final two playoff games were against Starpoint in back to back meetings on Friday and Saturday night. The final local game of the season was on Monday. Both of the Starpoint games were highly physical, littered with penalties, and non-stop action. The Chiefs finished their playoff run with a 3-1 win on Friday and lost 7-1 on Saturday.
Friday’s game brought a strong defensive battle from the Chiefs, and enough offense to secure the win. Steve Kaufmann provided the offense with 2 goals and an assist with Ryan Marshall adding the third. Strong defensive performances were shown by Richard Karalus, Andrew Wilson and Aiden Abraszek in the 3rd period to minimize a Starpoint comeback. Maverick Blachowicz was stellar in net making many point blank saves throughout the game to keep the Chiefs in the lead.
Saturday brought a 7-1 loss to the Chiefs who couldn’t pull out the win. The lone goal of the night was scored by Mark Morganti off an assist by Kaufmann.
The Chiefs played their last game before their state tournament on Monday night versus Southwest/Maplegrove. The Chiefs came out with a poor start going down 3-0 early before Aiden Abraszek netted the first goal to cut the deficit to two. Andrew Wilson added the second to bring the Chiefs within one but Southwest would add a late second period goal to lead 4-2 after two periods. Southwest would add a 5th early in the 3rd, but then goalie Rob Bauer shut the door for good. Richard Karalus scored the 3rd Chiefs goal on the power play, assisted by AJ Takac and Aiden Abraszek. A minute later Iroquois struck again, making the score 5-4 on a goal by Abraszek assisted by Ryan Marshall. Andrew Wilson tied the game off assists by Marshall and Abraszek. The two teams headed to overtime tied at 5, where Mark Morganti netted the game winner, off an assist by Aiden Abraszek, taking the game 6-5.
