BROOKINGS – For the second night in a row, the Blizzard played evenly with the top team in the NAHL, but on Saturday it was only for two periods as Janesville tallied three third-period goals for a 7-4 win at Larson Ice Center.
The Jets took a 2-0 lead as Cullen Munson scored a short-handed goal four minutes into the game before Cole Paskus lit the lamp midway through the period. Tim Faulkner’s goal off assists from Cade Borchardt and Brandon Kruse with 7:20 to play in the first made it 2-1 Janesville heading into the first intermission.
Connor Koviak tied the game less than two minutes into the second as Doug Larson and Paul Cotter earned assists before the next three goals were all scored on power-play chances. Munson tallied his second goal of the game with 10:47 to play and then Carter Ekberg found the back of the net with 6:11 on the clock as Janesville went up 4-2. The Blizzard cut the lead to a goal when Nicholas Cardelli deflected Tim Faulkner’s shot into the net as Zach Mitchell set up the shot with 4:31 left in the second.
Leading 4-3, the Jets tacked on two more goals – by Peter Bates with 11:29 left and by Michael Maloney with 6:20 to play – before Joseph Abate added an empty-netter with 32 seconds on the clock for the final margin.
The Blizzard held a 32-31 edge in shots as Jacob Barczewski collected 29 saves for the win and Josh Boyko stopped 24-of-30 shots that he faced in the loss.
Janesville converted 2-of-3 power-play opportunities to improve to 29-5-0-3, while the Blizzard converted 1-of-4 chances as they fell to 18-13-2-1 and dropped to third in the Central Division standings with 39 points.
Brookings travels to Bismarck on Friday for a weekend set with the Bruins. The puck drops at 7:15 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday at the VFW Sports Center.
