The Willmar WarHawks opened their home schedule by hosting the 1st place North Iowa Bulls on Friday Night. North Iowa outshot Willmar 9-6 and led 1-0 after the 1st period. Willmar got on track early in the 2nd period when Austin Jozwick scored his first goal of the season with assists coming from Ethan Mock and goaltender Luke Weberg. Jozwick kept the momentum going with his 2nd of the period at the 13:33 mark giving the WarHawks a 2-1 lead heading into the 3rd. North Iowa came back though, early in the third scoring twice within a minute to move back on top 3-2. Willmar’s Michael Sweetland tied the game with just over 6 minutes left with his 3rd goal of the season. Cayden Sunde, and Brady O’Brien picked up the assists. But a minute later, North Iowa recaptured the lead and added an empty netter for the 5-3 win.
Saturday Night the WarHawks hosted New Ulm with the Steel jumping out to a 2-0 lead after one, and led 3-0 just three minutes into the second. Willmar’s Drew Sandy gave the WarHawks some life with his first goal of the year at the 4:54 mark. Ethan Light, and Brady O’Brien picked up the assists. The WarHawks pulled within one ten minutes later when Louis Anders scored his first of the year with assists from Brady O’Brien and Jack Willis. New Ulm added a late goal in the 2nd and went up 5-2 midway through the 3rd period. Jeremiah Konkel set up Jack Willis for his 4th goal of the season late on the power play but there just wasn’t enough time as New Ulm came away with the 5-3 victory. “Good effort overall, we were in both games… the power play finally scored a goal, the goaltenders were solid both nights, we just needed to help them out a little more. We have a lot of positives to build on. We are a very young team and we are just going to gain more experience as we go,” said WarHawks coach Kirk Olimb.
Willmar (2-5-0 – 4 pts) has a home and home with North Iowa (5-2-0 – 10 pts) this weekend. Get your tickets at tickets.willmarWarhawks.com for Friday night’s game at the Willmar Civic Center Arena. The puck drops at 7:10 CDT. Saturday will be in North Iowa with a 7:30 start. You can watch the action on hockeytv.com
