Boys Hockey: Elk River surges past Brainerd

BRAINERD — After a solid first period, the Brainerd Warriors were jumped on by the Elk River Elks in a 6-0 Section 8-2A loss Saturday, Dec. 28, at Essentia Health Sports Center.

Elk River’s Luke Patraw recorded two goals and an assist and Tristan Kriech scored twice and dished out two assists to lead the Elk’s attack.

The Elks led 1-0 after the first period and 2-0 after the second period. The floodgates opened in the third period as Elk River scored four times to hand the Warriors another home loss.

Shots-on-goal were even after two periods with the Warriors holding a slight advantage after the first period and the Elks a lead in the second period. In the dominant third period, Elk River outshot Brainerd 14-4.

“In the first period, we did everything our gameplan was,” Warriors’ head coach Jerr Johnson said. “We talked all week about having a good start and we did that. We talked about getting pucks deep and setting up a system where we get them in front of us. We knew their goaltender was going to be tough to beat, but we got a lot of pucks to the net in that first period.

“Some of the struggles we have are just about believing in ourselves. When it got to 1-0, you could feel it on our bench a little bit like ‘oh boy.’ Even in the second period, it was just a 2-0 game. We just got away from our gameplan and it’s tough to beat teams like that when we do that.”

Kelly Humphrey / Brainerd Dispatch

Patraw started the party for Elk River with a goal at the 9:36 mark of the first period. It was assisted on by Logan Rustad, who dished four assists and scored one goal, and Rylan Hanson, who recorded two assists.

In the second period, Patraw scored his second goal on assists from Rustad and Kriech at the 12:10 mark.

“(Patraw) is a really, really good hockey player as a sophomore,” Johnson said. “Their coach said that he is someone that will probably play Division I hockey. When he’s on, he’s a really good player. His first goal, he beat Chad King, who is probably our fastest player on our team. He has speed and he got behind us on his second goal, too.”

Elk River’s Gavin Greniuk notched 28 saves to record a shutout. Brainerd sophomore goaltender Griffin Bartholomaus stopped 32 shots.

“Griffin had some big saves to keep it 1-0 for a while,” Johnson said. “He’s stepped up and had some good games, but we haven’t been able to reward him with a win. He played really well tonight.”

In the third period, Kriech scored his first of two third-period goals at the 4:44 mark. Four minutes later, Rustad added a goal at the 11:59 mark. Kriech scored a short-handed goal to make it 5-0.

“At the end of the day, we need our guys to believe they are good,” Johnson said. “And we are a good team despite what our record says. We have good players, who make some really good plays, but we get off script sometimes and that’s where we get into trouble.”

Brainerd is back home Thursday, Jan. 2, against Willmar. The hope is the New Year will bring more wins for the now 1-9 Warriors.

“We are excited about the New Year and today was probably one of the toughest losses for us, but we have to get back to work,” Johnson said. “We are just going to worry about ourselves and not who our opponent is. I know we are close and I’m hopeful that when we get to the New Year we will be able to get in the win column more.”

Kelly Humphrey / Brainerd Dispatch

CONRAD ENGSTROM may be reached at 218-855-5861 or [email protected]. Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/the_rad34.