Glacier Avalanche Midgets battle Bozeman Ice Dogs

The Glacier Avalanche Midgets hockey team, including several Whitefish High School players, battled the Bozeman Ice Dogs over the weekend. The teams fought to a 2-2 draw in the first game on Saturday afternoon, then Bozeman won a 3-2 squeaker in a hard-hitting game the following morning.

In the first game, Whitefish’s J.J. Courtney got the Avs on the board first with a goal in the 17th minute, with an assist from Michael Noe. The Avs then took a 2-1 lead when Noe scored an unassisted goal in the third period, but the Ice Dogs tied it back up. There are no shoot-outs due to time constraints, so the Avs had to settle for the tie.

Young goalkeeper Taylor Huslander had 32 saves for the Avalanche, while his Bozeman counterpart had 16 saves.

There were 19 power-play penalties in the game, all of which were of the two-minute variety, except for one Bozeman player getting a 10-minute vacation for unsportsmanlike conduct.

In the second game Sunday morning, the Avalanche jumped out to a 1-0 lead eight minutes into the first period when Nathaniel Rottier took an assist from Joe Malmquist and scored a power-play goal.

The Ice Dogs tied it up, then took a 3-1 lead in the second period. Whitefish’s Tanner Hosek got the Avs to within one when he scored off an assist from Noe and Joe Nangel in the third period, but the Avalanche couldn’t get the game-tying goal. There were only 15 power-play penalties in the second game. Huslander had another 32 saves.

The Midgets will travel to Missoula on Feb. 14-15 for a league tournament.