Ice Hawks skate to three Ice Dome wins

The Havre Ice Hawks high school hockey team is running out of time to settle into a groove before the state tournament, but over the weekend at the Havre Ice Dome, they took a huge step in the right direction.

Havre played four home games over the weekend and came up big, doubling their total wins on the season.

Previously sitting at 3-8-1, the Ice Hawks are now 6-9-1 after finishing the weekend with three wins and one loss. Friday, Havre defeated the Miles City Generals by scores of 14-0 and 14-1. Saturday night, the Ice Hawks also defeated Salmon Idaho, 8-2 after honoring the seven seniors before the puck dropped. Salmon returned the favor and defeated Havre 5-2 Sunday morning.

In Friday’s first win over the Generals, the Ice Hawks scored four goals in the first period, five goals in the second period and five goals in the third period to dominate Miles City. And matching the offensive efforts, goals Josh Emge had 37 saves in the shutout victory.

Ned Malone and Justin Miller both had hat tricks for the Ice Hawks. Malone’s first goal was assisted by Miller and Gavin Gunderson, while Kyle Konesky got the assist on the second goal and Dustin Armstrong and Miller assisted the third, a power play goal for the Ice Hawks. Miller’s first goal was assisted by Armstrong and Malone, Dane Linquist assisted the second, and Armstrong had the lone assist on the third.

Konesky also scored an unassisted goal, while Alex Hanson had two goals, one unassisted and one assisted by Brandon Huntington. Armstrong also scored on a Malond/Konesky assist, as well as on a Miller assist on a power play, While Nick Howell had one goal (Miller/Nick Stump assist), Zach Fraham had one goal (Derek Matosich assist), and Linquist had one goal (Linquist/Huntington/Alex Cole assist).

The scoring barrage continued in the second meeting between the Ice hawks and Generals.

In the second game, Emge gave up just one goal but still saved eight shots on goal. The Ice Hawks forced Miles City to save 49 shots, still scoring 14 times.

Miller helped lead the way with two more goals. His first goal was assisted by Linquist and Malone, while his second was assisted by Armstrong.  Frahm and Alex Hanson also scored two goals each for Havre. Frahm’s first goal was a powerplay goal assisted by Matosich and Alex Cole, while his second was assisted by Megan Cline. Alex Hanson’s first goal was assisted by Linquist and Gunderson, and his second was assisted by Konesky and Huntington.

Eight other Ice Hawks scored one goal each. Armstrong, Howell, Blake Hanson, Gunderson, Jon Stoner, Cline, Malone and Matosich all scored in the lopsided win.

In their third consecutive win of the weekend, the Ice Hawks scored eight more goals Saturday night. They also committed nine penalties after combining just three penalties in the two games prior.

But the Ice Hawks were able to rally behind another strong offensive performance after scoring just one goal in the first period. Blake Hanson got the puck rolling in the first on a Huntington/Alex Hanson assist, and seven more goals followed, including a second goal by Blake Hanson (Alex Hanson assist). Malone, Howell, Armstrong and Konesky also had one goal apiece, while Huntington scored two goals.

Sunday’s loss was a difficult one for the Ice Hawks. After handling Salmon the day before, Havre didn’t have quite the same explosion when it came to scoring goals. The weekend-high 13 penalties also kept the Ice Hawks out of a groove, playing a lot of minutes one man down. Goalie Emge did come up with 31 saves.

Both Havre goals were scored in the opening period. Blake Hanson scored a power play goal on a Huntington assist, and Miller added yet another weekend goal, this time on a Konesky assist.

The Ice Hawks are off until Feb. 22-23 and they travel to Whitefish where they'll wrap up the regular season.