Brutal road swing continues Friday

The Yellowstone Quake junior hockey team remains in fourth place in the NORPAC standings following a 2-3 start on a rugged road trip that, when finished, will have seen the team play seven games in four communities over a nine-day stretch.

The flurry of activity began last Friday with a 6-3 victory at Eugene. The Quake scored three goals in the game’s first seven minutes to open a lead that was never seriously challenged.

Eugene trimmed the lead to 3-1 later in the first period, but the Quake notched the only two goals of the second period and Eugene was never closer than three after that.

Andreas Olofsson, Michael Pijanowski, Mitchell Pijanowski, Matthew Schulz, Zachary Tuchklaper and Rusty Sandry each scored one goal in the win. Mitchell Pijanowski also was credited with three assists in the contest.

From there, the Quake drove north to face Vancouver, Wash., in a three-game series. Yellowstone dropped the first two games by narrow margin, falling 8-7 in overtime and 5-4 in regulation, before storming to a 9-0 victory in the final game of the series.

The shutout was the first of the year by the Quake as goalie Dom DeGuiseppi steered all 27 shots wide of the net. Drew Parus, Derek Scott and Olofsson each finished with two goals in the victory.

In the overtime loss, the host Vancouver Victory tied the game with under two minutes to play in regulation, then scored three minutes into the extra stanza to salvage the win. Scott had two goals as six different players lit the lamp for the Quake in the defeat.

The Quake got off to a fast start in Sunday’s loss at Vancouver as well. The team struck twice in the first three minutes as Schulz and Olofsson scored to put the Quake ahead 2-0.

Vancouver settled in to score two goals to close out the first period and send the contest into the first intermission tied. A goal just over two minutes into the second period put the Victory ahead for the first time in the game.

Scott equalized things for the Quake just past the eight-minute mark of the period, but Vancouver’s Elijah Bordak scored twice in a 90-second span to open a two-goal lead. Rusty Sandry halved that margin with four minutes to play in the second period, but no further scoring was recorded by either side, leaving the Quake a goal shy when the final horn sounded.

Yellowstone stayed in Washington for a Tuesday game against West Sound. After matching their hosts with a goal in the first period, the Quake were blanked in the middle 20 minutes, eventually falling behind 3-1. A three-goal flurry over a six-minute span of the third period transformed a 3-2 score into a 6-2 gap that effectively ended the contest.

Olofsson, Schulz, Tuchklaper and Tom Toohey scored for the Quake.

The team takes a couple days off, but will spend most of that time on a bus as it travels to Whitefish, Mont., for a Friday-Saturday twinbill against Glacier. It will be the first-ever meeting between the Quake and the expansion Nationals. The games were added to the schedule earlier this month following an announcement that the Butte Roughrider franchise had withdrawn from the league.

The Quake return home on Dec. 2 to begin a three-game series against Vancouver at Riley Arena.