Border Battle Rivalry No Battle At All

December 4, 2005 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Owatonna Express News Release


OWATONNA, Minn. - Before the first puck had ever been dropped, the North Iowa Outlaws and Southern Minnesota Express knew they would be rivals. That's just how it is between Minnesota and Iowa. Separated by only 60 miles of freeway and an imaginary state line, the two first-year NAHL franchises and their fans were fired up to play each other 14 times this season and stoke the fires of the natural Iowa-Minnesota competitive spirit.

After the past two weekends and four straight meetings between the two teams, however, the so-called "Border Battle" has become decidedly one-sided. Southern Minnesota, riding a hot powerplay and a wave of offensive momentum stretching all the way back to October, handed North Iowa four straight thrashings.

The streak began November 25 in Mason City with a 9-2 Southern Minnesota victory. It ended December 4 on the same sheet of ice with the Express winning 8-3. In between were 6-1 and 5-2 Southern Minnesota wins on home ice. Those victories raised Southern Minnesota's season totals to 16-8-3, just one point behind the first-place Fargo-Moorhead Jets in the Central Division. The Express powerplay went 9-for-26 (34.6 percent) over the four games, lifting the unit to the league's top three. With 121 goals scored in 26 games, the Express are now the highest-scoring club in the league.

"We feel like we match up pretty well with North Iowa," said Express Coach Pat Cullen, in the understatement of the week. "We feel like we have a lot of depth. We just try to control what we can control and hope that's good enough."

It was plenty good enough over the past two weeks and the numbers just keep adding up. The Express now boast three players among the NAHL's top five scorers (Jason Wiley, Sean Murphy, Ryan Guentzel) with a fourth knocking on the door (Alex Coles). Wiley, who has 9 goals in his last 9 games, and Coles share the league goal scoring lead at 18 with North Iowa's Patrick Dynan. Six players have reached double digits in goal scoring. Jeff Carlson (4-15-19) is currently the second-highest scoring NAHL defenseman, three points behind Brett Blatchford of Texas. The Express, who have been held without a point only once in their last 14 games, will now sit idle until December 14.



North American Hockey League Stories from December 4, 2005


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