JUNIOR VARSITY BOYS

It was a rough weekend in Rapid City for the Ranger junior varsity as they dropped a pair of games to the Thunder – 5-1 on Saturday and 5-3 on Sunday. The two losses drop Brookings into a four-way tie for third place in the SDAHA standings with 16 points. The Rangers have a busy weekend ahead with a Thursday game in Sioux Falls against the Flyers 2 team; at Watertown on Friday; at Aberdeen on Saturday; and then at Brandon Valley on Sunday.

• Rushmore 5, Brookings 1

The Thunder dominated play – outshooting Brookings, 30-19 – on the way to a 5-0 lead before the Rangers scored late for the final score.

Rushmore led 1-0 after one; 3-0 through two; and then added two goals in the third before Kane Kurtenbach lit the lamp for the Rangers as Jack McCarty earned the assist.

Phillip Kuechenmeister finished with 25 saves in the loss.

• Rushmore 5, Brookings 3

The Rangers led early in Sunday’s game as Dalton Rittershaus scored a pair of goals – the first unassisted and the second set up by Sajen Perry on a power-play opportunity. The Thunder scored late in the period sent the game into the first intermission with Brookings up 2-1.

Rushmore scored three unanswered goals in the second period to take a 4-2 lead into the third.

The Thunder pushed their lead to 5-2 with a power-play goal late in the game before Brookings responded with its own power-play tally by Trevor Pederson – assisted by Kobe Ischen.

Rushmore held a 33-21 edge in shots as Kuechenmeister made 28 stops in the loss.

BANTAMS

The Bantam Rangers split a pair of league games with Rushmore over the weekend – falling 4-3 on Saturday before coming back with a 6-4 win on Sunday. Brookings is third in the SDAHA standings with 11 points and hits the road for a 2 p.m. game in Aberdeen on Saturday.

• Rushmore 4, Brookings 3

The Rangers built a 2-0 lead after a period as Wes Koenig found the back of the net twice in the opening period – assisted by Brody Powers on the first tally and unassisted on the second.

The Thunder scored the only goal of the second period – short-handed – to get within 2-1 heading into the third.

Logan Bortnem notched an unassisted goal to push the Rangers’ lead to 3-1, but Rushmore scored three goals in the final 4:32 to pull out the win – scoring the game winner with just 22 seconds to play.

Brookings held a 30-16 edge in shots as Carter Schulz came up with 12 saves in the loss.

• Brookings 6, Rushmore 4

The Rangers scored four first-period goals for a 4-0 lead after one, but the Thunder came back with four goals of their own to send the game into the final period tied at 4-4.

Brookings pulled out the win with two third-period goals.

Bortnem started the scoring off an assist from Isaac Dobesh before Koenig lit the lamp off a Powers’ setup. Ashton Witte tallied back-to-back goals to close out the first-period scoring as Bortnem assisted on the first and Talon Richter set up the second.

With the score tied at 4-4, Isaac Schulte scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal early in the third as Bortnem picked up another assist. Koenig added an insurance goal with 4:41 to play as Richter notched another assist.

Brookings outshot Rushmore, 29-19, as Schulz faced 15 shots with 11 saves before Kade Brecher came in and stopped all four shots that he faced.