OCTOBER 15, 2016 - Nearly a month and half after the players reported, the Steele County Blades have their first games at the newly renovated Four Seasons Centre. The Blades are prepared to take on the Dells Ducks in two games after last seeing each other in the season opening weekend. Puck drops at 7:30 PM Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at 3:00 PM.
In the two games earlier this season, each team has walked away with a win and a loss, with the Blades earning a point in the overtime loss. Each of the games was decided by a single goal. The Ducks have played five games since opening the season against Steele County. The Ducks have posted 4 wins and have only lost to the division leading Wisconsin Rapids Riverkings. The Ducks collected 2 wins against the Chicago Cougars as well as the Forest Lake Lakers over the last two weekends.
The Blades hope to continue their offensive prowl, with five players averaging over a point a game through four games (as of October 12th, 2016). Soren Colstrup leads the way with 7 points (3 goals and 4 assists). Kyle Wadden leads the team in goals with 4 and is 2nd in points with 6. Chase Wedding (3 goals and 2 assists), Chase Lewis (2 goals and 3 assists) and Colton Sprenger (2 goals and 3 assists) all have 5 points.
The Blades will need to stifle Ducks newcomer Jake Tomkowiak, who has scored 6 points in 4 games since joining the Ducks. Veteran's Sherman Mowery, and Cory Schwarz also have posted 6 points in 7 games. The Blades average scoring 5 goals per game while yielding 3.25 goals against on average. Nearly half of Steele County’s tallies against the Dells in the opening weekend came on the man advantage. If this matchup resembles the aforementioned series at all, we can look forward to some high octane offense coming from both teams.
Look for no shortage of animosity between the two teams. There were 81 combined penalty minutes in the previous two meetings. “These are two very focused and determined teams, Assistant Coach Bobby Solari added. "I am sure that both squads think they owe each other some revenge. We stole 3 out of 4 possible points in their building and I am sure they want to come into our barn and spoil our home opener. I expect to see two very hungry teams battle for 60 minutes, two nights in a row."
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