Sports stats

USHL Dubuque Fighting Saints

"Resilient" Saints Take All Four Points in Weekend Sweep

November 28, 2022 - United States Hockey League (USHL)
Dubuque Fighting Saints News Release


Dubuque, IA - It wasn't an easy weekend for those faint of heart, the Dubuque Fighting Saints took care of business on home ice over the weekend with a pair of overtime wins over the Chicago Steel and Des Moines Buccaneers.

FRIDAY

The Fighting Saints and Chicago Steel had already met once this season, but that was nearly two months ago. Since then, Chicago has surged it's way to the top of the Eastern Conference standings. Meanwhile, the Fighting Saints finished a season long eight game road trip and have opened their home schedule with a nearly flawless 2-0-01 start.

Despite many things changing since then, the result on Friday night did not. The Fighting Saints jumped out to two-goal lead on a Max Montes powerplay goal followed up by Noah Powell's second goal of the season. For Montes, it was his fifth goal in as many games, and extended his personal point streak to four games.

"I feel really great right now," said Montes. "I'm getting some really great plays from Ryan on the power play. We're just connecting right now and I'm finding the back of the net."

In the second period, Chicago responded with a dominant 20-minute stretch. The Steel's Mack Celebrini started the come-back with his 10th goal of the season 7:40 into the period. Then, Jayden Perron tied the game with a power play goal of his own just over five minutes later. Perron worked in off the half-wall and ripped a wrist shot through traffic to beat Paxton Geisel.

"It was maybe a bad read on the power play goal they scored," said Saints head coach Kirk MacDonald on Geisel's performance. "We gave them too much ice through the middle. But [Paxton] had two guys in his sight line. That being said, those were good goals. You have to give credit where credit is due."

Geisel was superb for the Fighting Saints on a night they needed it. After staying even with Chicago in the first period, the Saints were outshot 25-12 the rest of the game. Geisel was a large reason the Steel never managed to grab a lead in the matchup.

Geisel's best save of the night was a jaw-dropper early in the third period. Perron dangled around the Fighting Saints defense and cut across the crease only to be stopped by the left pad of Geisel. The puck was still loose and Geisel made a pair of Superman-esque saves diving back to his right to deny Chicago of the lead. The saves sprung a chance for Ryan St. Louis in transition the other way for the Saints. St. Louis, who is Dubuque's leading scorer, forced a turnover at the blue line and slipped a shot past Christian Manz to give his team a 3-2 lead.

"He made some saves that he probably shouldn't have made tonight," said MacDonald. "But that's what you need from your goalies to win. Again, we didn't freak out when they got a scoring chance. It might have been a good chance, but it wasn't two, three, four chances in a row."

The Steel wouldn't go away without a fight, and forced another tie and eventually overtime after a Charlie Major shot deflected off of the Saints' Shawn O'Donnell to beat Geisel.

In the extra session, it was another opportunity for some younger faces to step up for the Fighting Saints. Dubuque was without Mikey Burchill on Friday night, which led to top six minutes for Gavin Cornforth, and potentially was the reason James Reeder was on the ice in overtime.

Reeder, who MacDonald cannot stop singing the praises of, ended the game Friday night. The rookie created a turnover in his own defensive end, then flew up the ice to collect a pass from Oliver Moberg and beat Manz to start the weekend off on the right foot.

MacDonald summed up the game perfectly saying, "I hope the fans got their money's worth."

SATURDAY

It would be easy to just copy and paste the recap from Friday night to tell the story of what happened inside the Dubuque Ice Arena on Saturday evening between the Fighting Saints and Des Moines Buccaneers

The score was the same. The flow was the same. It was as carbon copy as you could get from Friday night on paper, but there was so much more to it.

The Saints again jumped out to a two-goal lead in the first period. They subsequently blew that lead in the second and allowed the Bucs to tie the game at 2-2 after the second period. Dubuque regained the lead 3-2 early in the third, and then allowed the equalizer again to force overtime tied at 3-3.

They played an even game in the first period, then were taken to school in the second being outshot 20-4, but bounced back in the third and got to overtime. They won the game again in overtime, again by a final score of 4-3. In net, Marcus Brännman, like Paxton Geisel the night before, stood on his head when the Saints needed him to.

The difference? Saturday night felt so much more special. The first moment of the night came in the final minute of the first period. The Saints' Gavin Cornforth, who is the youngest player in the USHL, banged home a rebound for his first career USHL goal.

"I was definitely really excited," said Cornforth. "It was a good weight lifted off my shoulders. Stu (Riley Stuart) hit it about three times, and then I just buried it. It was just kind of a moment for me."

The second special moment of the night began in the first period, and culminated in overtime. Max Burkholder was the first scorer of the game for the Fighting Saints. The future Colorado College Tiger sliced his way through the Buccaneer defense and roofed a back handed shot from in tight. He was the one to give the Saints their 3-2 lead in the third period as well. On the power play, Burkholder snuck down on the weak side of the play and was pounced on a pass from Ryan St. Louis for his second goal of the night.

Burkholder saved his grand finale for the overtime period. After the Saints' Oliver Moberg was called for a five minute checking from behind major in the third period, Dubuque needed a huge kill to at least get to overtime. They surrendered one goal allowing the Bucs to force overtime, but all-in-all it had to be considered a win.

After the Saints returned to even strength in the overtime, Burkholder, who a week ago MacDonald described as a "river boat gambler" offensively, took his final gamble of the night. He weaved around a defender in the slot and reached around Des Moines goaltender Max Lundgren to finish off his hat-trick.

"It was definitely a special night," Burkholder said. "It was good to get the weekend sweep. It was a character win for sure."

Burkholder, who practically refused to talk about his own individual accomplishment and kept the focus on the team effort, became the first Fighting Saint defenseman since Braden Doyle on December 6, 2019 to record a hat trick.

The weekend sweep was the first of the season for the Fighting Saints. Dubuque now has points in five straight games.

Check out the Dubuque Fighting Saints Statistics



United States Hockey League Stories from November 28, 2022


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Dubuque Fighting Saints Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central