Skaters ousted by top seed
Ely’s high school hockey team made tremendous strides down the home stretch of the 2004-2005 season, rebounding from a 1-6 start and winning 10 of 17 games going into Thursday night’s playoff game in Virginia.But the Timberwolves didn’t come far enough to match up with the explosive Blue Devils, who rolled to a 9-1, Section 7A quarterfinal win before about 1,200 fans at the Miners Memorial Building.Matt Niskanen, who’s headed to the University of Minnesota-Duluth on a hockey scholarship, led the Blue Devils with two goals, including a laser that put the hosts on the board 31 seconds into the game.Freshman standout Nico Sacchetti also scored twice for Virginia (18-5-2), which advanced into the weekend semifinals and a date with Silver Bay.Ely, which handed Chisholm a 7-2 defeat in the opening round, was outshot by a better than two-to-one margin and finished 11-13.Playing before a loud home following, Virginia jumped right on the Wolves.Shortly after the opening faceoff, Niskanen skated into the Ely end, fired from the left circle, and zinged it past goaltender Warren Burger.Virginia outshot the Wolves 18-3 in the first frame, and continued to pepper away after opening tally.At the eight-minute mark, Jared Miettunen scored on a slapshot off of a faceoff in the Ely end. Teammate Matt McGillivray scored on an almost identical play four minutes later and it was 3-0 after one.The second period was Ely’s best. The Wolves put 13 shots on goal, and A.J. Johnson’s shot late in the period turned out to be their only score of the night.By then it was 6-0, as Niskanen scored on another blast, with Sacchetti and Brett Branville following.Sacchetti’s power-play goal with three seconds left in the period made it 7-1 and sent the game into running time in the third, when Nick Joelson and Jeff Ralston scored for the Blue Devils.Burger finished with 42 saves for the Wolves, while Virginia netminder Casey Sloth stopped 21 of 22 shots.The game was the last in an Ely hockey uniform for several seniors, including Jake Curtiss, Mike Krunkkala, Gunnar Johnson, Wayne Minier, Billy Saw, George Burger, Eric Park, A.J. Johnson and Mike Pettit.Wolves 7, Chisholm 2Ely lost to the Bluestreaks in the teams’ first regular season meeting and eked out a victory in the second game.But the playoff rubber match was no contest, as the Wolves had three-goal first and second periods to cruise to an easy win.Curtiss scored twice to lead the way.Richie Milovich scored two minutes into the game to put Ely on the board, and Gunnar Johnson followed with an end-to-end-rush that finished with a shot that beat Bluestreaks goaltender Tyler Kintner.A goal by Justin Shega trimmed the lead in half, but Saw gave the Wolves a 3-1 lead after the first period.Curtiss and Chisholm’s Dan Cianni traded goals in the second, but George Burger scored what proved to be the backbreaker.In a pileup in front of the Chisholm net, Burger drilled the puck past Kintner for a 5-2 lead.Richards, off a feed from Travis Erzar made it a four-goal game late in the second and Ely added another score in the third.
