The Grand Forks Red River boys hockey team might have had a rivalry game hangover for the first half of Thursday’s matchup with Devils Lake, but the Roughriders shook it off in time to bounce back.
Red River scored three third-period goals to pull away from the Firebirds 4-1 at Eagles Arena.
“We didn’t come out to our strongest potential in the first, but we kept building as the game went on,” said Red River forward Luke LaMoine, who finished with three assists.
The Roughriders avoided losing back-to-back games for the first time since the 2013-14 season.
The defending state champion Riders (5-1) lost their first game of the season last Saturday 7-1 to Grand Forks Central, a loss that snapped a 33-game winning streak.
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“It was tough,” LaMoine said of the loss to the Knights. “It was a big loss, and we didn’t want that. We can get past that now and look forward to the rest of the season.”
Red River started the scoring at 5:14 of the second period when Braden Costello was camped out in front of Devils Lake goalie Wyatt Ness and tipped in a Mason Salquist pass.
The Riders pushed the lead to 3-0 with goals 1:22 apart early in the third period. Tyler Savage scored on a rush at 3:06 of the final period, while defenseman Landon Haagenson jumped into the play and scored on a LaMoine feed at 4:38.
Devils Lake trimmed the lead to 3-1 with a power-play goal at 8:52 of the third period by Mathew Boren.
But the Riders put the game away at 15:01 when Kaden Landa’s shot from the point beat Ness for a 4-1 Red River lead.
“We played well,” Red River coach Bill Chase said. “We still had a layover from that Central game, but pride kicked in and we got our feet moving in the second and third.”
Red River goalie Jacob Mehlhoff stopped 17 shots, including 10 in the first period. Ness stopped 31 shots.
“Our first period was all right,” said Devils Lake coach Jens Stokke, whose team dropped to 6-2. “We didn’t attack the net as much as we’d like to but they’re a good team. In the third, we came out and weren’t ready to go. They were too much and kept coming.”
