WILLMAR — The Willmar War-Hawks beat the Alexandria Blizzard 4-3 in a shootout Friday night before 450 fans at the Willmar Civic Center.

Willmar led 1-0 after one period, getting Eli Slagter’s fifth goal of the season. Slagter is a left wing from Willmar.

The second period saw five goals, with Alexandria scoring three times and Willmar twice.

Josh Hoffman and Trent Sylvester each scored in the period for the WarHawks.

After a scoreless third period and overtime, Willmar won it in the shootout, getting a goal from Brandon Holt to win the best-of-three skaters format 1-0. Holt is a forward from Madison Heights, Mich.

Willmar is in third place in the NA3HL West Division with an 8-5-0-1 record. They trail North Iowa (13-2-1-0, 27 points) and Granite City (11-3-0-0, 22). Alexandria is 6-5-1-1 and has 14 points.

Willmar plays at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at North Iowa.

Willmar 4, Alexandria 3 (SO)

Alexandria 0 3 0 0 — 3

Willmar 1 2 0 0 — 3

FIRST PERIOD – (1) W: Eli Slagter 5 (Marquez Ginger) 3:48. Penalties: (1) A: Wyatt Blahosky (tripping-minor) 5:01

(2) W: Caleb Brownell (tripping-minor) 12:15.

SECOND PERIOD – (2) A: Dallas Duckson 7 (Carter Rieland, Ike Taraszewski) 6:29, pp (3) W: Josh Hoffman 3 (unassisted) 7:44, shg (4) A: Rieland 5 (Taraszewski, Cole Jacobs) 8:51 (5) A: Michal Trejbal 5 (Alex Heidenreich) 13:53

(6) W: Trent Sylvester 2 (Brandon Holt) 15:07. Penalties: (3) W: Ginger (bench-minor) 4:43 (4) W: Brandon Holt (boarding-minor) 6:50.

THIRD PERIOD – No scoring. Penalty: (5) W: Ginger (kneeing-minor) 12:21.

OVERTIME — No scoring.

GOALIE SAVES/SHOTS – A: Bailey Rosch (26/29) … W: Lukas Haugen (34/37).