Wolves Take The Weekend In Tightly Contested Game Saturday Night
Columbus, GA - The Watertown Wolves took the series win and set themselves up for a weekend sweep after defeating the Columbus River Dragons by a score of 3-1 on Saturday night.
The first period started off chippy with a brawl breaking out between the teams at the 4:15 mark of the first period. This incident saw Hunter Bersani get assessed a cross-checking penalty that put Watertown on the first power play of the game. Edgars Ozolinsh was handed down a fighting penalty as well as a misconduct for continuing a fight trying to take on all comers in blue jerseys, while Riley Robertson was handed down a fighting penalty on the Watertown side of things.
Another scrum broke out at the 9:36 mark of the first period with MJ Graham and Kyle Heitzner getting into an altercation that resulted in the pair being handed down fighting penalties. Though Graham appeared to get the better result in the fight, he would not return to the game with an undisclosed injury after this scrap. The first period remained scoreless with both goalies holding strong in their respective nets.
Watertown found the back of the net first with Alexander Jmaeff scoring on the power play at the 7:05 mark assisted by Justin MacDonald and Troy Taylor to give Watertown a 1-0 lead. The Wolves extended their lead at the 12:04 mark, this time with a goal from Kyle Heitzner assisted by Alexander Jmaeff and Justin MacDonald, stretching the lead to 2-0. Both goals came after sustained pressure from the Wolves deep in the Columbus zone, hemming the Dragons in defensively.
Alex Storjohann scored his first professional goal at the 15:12 mark of the second period assisted by Edgars Ozolinsh to cut the Watertown lead to 2-1 putting a well placed shot off the far post and in to give Columbus some life.
The third period saw strong defense from both teams and the final goal of the game didn’t come until the 19:36 mark with an empty net goal scored by Alexander Jmaeff making the final score 3-1, giving the Wolves their second win of the weekend.
The win spoiled a banner raising ceremony the River Dragons put on during pregame to honor the Amos' family, former owners of the Columbus Cottonmouths. Prior to the game the Columbus Legends team defeated Fort Benning Hockey Club by a score of 4-2.
The Wolves and River Dragons finish out their three-game set tomorrow afternoon with a 4:30 puck drop at the Columbus Civic Center. Tickets available at the Civic Center Box Office or on TicketMaster.
Three Stars of the Game
Alexander Jmaeff
Justin MacDonald
Alex Storjohann