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Grand Rapids Hockey Offseason News
-Sam Rendle, Tony Palkki, and John Skrbec have been named captains for the
2008-2009 season.
-J.R. Mackey has been awarded the 2007-2008 Grand Rapids Hobey Baker Award.
-Corey Kosak was named Player's Choice team MVP for the 2007-2008 season.
-Sam Sparen was named Player's Choice team Most Determined Player for the
2007-2008 season.
-Pat Rendle has been named Grand Rapids High School Athletic Director as Wayne
Pender is set to resign at the end of the school year.
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Grand Rapids vs. Hibbing
IRA Civic Center, Grand Rapids, MN-7:30 p.m.
2/4/2008
Game Preview:
Grand Rapids and Hibbing will take to the ice for
the second time in 17 days. The Hibbing Blue Jackets defeated Grand Rapids 4-2
in the first meeting in Hibbing just 17 days ago. Hibbing is coming off of a big
upset win over International Falls and Grand Rapids is coming off a convincing
9-1 drubbing of Eveleth. Grand Rapids is currently in a three way tie for first
place in the Iron Range Conference with Virginia and International Falls. Grand
Rapids and International Falls each have six possible conference points left.
Grand Rapids has two with Hibbing and four with International Falls still on the
table. The Broncos have two with Greenway and four with Grand Rapids left.
Virginia only has two possible points remaining. Hibbing sits in fourth in the
IRC, but they have ten points remaining on their schedule. That leaves Hibbing
with an outside shot at an outright or shared conference title. The Thunderhawks
come into the game at 11-8-1 with just four games remaining the regular season.
The Thunderhawks will be looking to veteran leaders Robb Roy and Sam Sparen to
help carry the load down the stretch. Sam Rendle and Corey Kosak will be the two
defensive veterans asked to answer the call at the blue line. The Thunderhawks
will need to find a way to contain Aaron Jamnick on Monday night. Jamnick
tallied three times in the
meeting at the Hibbing Memorial Building back in
January. The Blue Jackets are looking to keep their surge of solid play going
through the rest of the season. Hibbing is 9-11 on the season, but they are
currently playing their best hockey of the year. It is no coincidence that they
have heated up since the return of junior defenseman Drew Vechell. Expect a good
old, physical Iron Range Conference battle in Grand Rapids.
Iron Range
Conference
International Falls 6- 1-0 12 19- 2-0
Grand Rapids 4- 1-0 12 11- 8-1
Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl 5- 3-0 12 15- 7-0
Hibbing/Chisholm 3- 2-0 6 9-11-0
Eveleth-Gilbert/Mesabi East 0- 5-0 0 5-17-0
Greenway 0- 6-0 0 7-13-0
*Courtesy of
www.geocities.com/dent0110
Last meeting:
Hibbing 4, Grand Rapids 2 (January 18, 2008) Game
summary
Notes: This is the only Monday game Grand
Rapids will play this season. If Grand Rapids beats both Hibbing (Monday) and
International Falls (Friday), they will win the Iron Range Conference outright.
Grand Rapids had a season high (66) in shots on goal in their last game against
Eveleth and allowed a season low (11). They also scored a season high nine goals
in the game.
Special Teams: Grand Rapids has now been on the power play more than
100 times this season. The power play is just over 20% (21/103). The penalty
kill sits at 83% (77/93) on the year.
Line Score: Goals (top), Shots (bottom)
| Team |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
Final |
| Grand
Rapids |
2 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
| Hibbing |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Team |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
Final |
| Grand
Rapids |
12 |
13 |
9 |
34 |
| Hibbing |
7 |
7 |
5 |
19 |
Box Score:
1st Period-1. H, Ryan Johnson (Travis
King, Anthony DeCenzo) 1:01; 2. GR, John Skrbec (Sam Sparen, Sam Rendle) (PP)
8:42; 3. GR, Shane Greniger (Matt Jerulle, J.R. Mackey) 10:06
2nd Period-4. GR, John Skrbec (Robb Roy, Sam Sparen) 4:39
3rd Period-5. GR, Robb Roy (Sam Rendle, A.J. Underwood) (SH) (EN) 16:06
Saves-A. J. Underwood (GR) 18, Todd Sandstrom (H) 30
Three Stars:
3. Robb Roy (GR)
2. Sam Rendle (GR)
1. John Skrbec (GR)
Game Summary:
Official start time: 7:30 p.m.
Official end time: 9:28 p.m.
Official game time: 1 hour and 58 minutes
The Grand Rapids Thunderhawks set up a huge matchup with International Falls on
Friday by beating Hibbing 4-1 on Monday. John Skrbec had a big two goal night to
lead the Thunderhawks to and Iron Range Conference victory. The win put Hibbing
out of the running in the conference. Ryan Johnson scored just 1:01 into the
game for Hibbing. That would be the only goal that Hibbing scored in the game.
A.J. Underwood stopped the other 18 shots he faced for the tenth win of his
career. John Skrbec tied the game at one with a power play goal midway through
the period. Sam Sparen and Sam Rendle assisted on Skrbec's first of the night.
Shane Greniger gave Grand Rapids the lead for good less than a minute later.
Matt Jerulle and J.R. Mackey assisted on the pretty goal. John Skrbec scored his
second of the game and sixth of the year in the second period. Robb Roy and Sam
Sparen picked up assisted on the lone second period goal. Robb Roy sealed the
fate of the Hibbing Blue Jackets late in the third period when he scored an
empty net goal short handed from the far blue line. Sam Rendle and goaltender
A.J. Underwood assisted the empty net goal. Todd Sandstrom stopped 30 shots in
the loss for Hibbing. The Thunderhawks are now in a first place tie with
International Falls for the Iron Range Conference title. The winner of Friday's
matchup will win the conference.
Photos are now up: Page One,
Page Two
Photo of the game:
Courtesy of Shannon Merritt
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