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Bismarck blanks Magi hockey for WDA title

Submitted Photo Bismarck's T.J. Irey (29) gathers in the puck in front of the Minot net before resetting and shooting the puck past Patrick Heide and goaltender Odin Nelson as part of his hat trick, all in the second period, of the West Region hockey tournament championship game at the VFW Sports Center on Saturday. Photo courtesy Mike McCleary, Bismarck Tribune.

It is official: The Bismarck Demons are champions of West Region for the second consecutive season. Bismarck secured a No. 1 seed in the upcoming state tournament with a 6-0 victory over the Minot Magicians in the West Region championship on Saturday evening at the VFW Sports Center.

“I liked the way we played,” Bismarck coach Mike Peluso said. “We played a pretty good game for our third game in three days. Our compete level was up there, and I like to see that. Now we have to regroup, start over and get ourselves ready again for next week. Now the tempo gets even greater.

“We have to make sure that we enjoy this for a real short period, get back to work and hopefully we can do something exciting next week.”

The game opened with a scoreless first period, giving the indication that it was going to be a low-scoring matchup. This narrative promptly changed during the second period, however, as T.J. Irey and the Demons erupted for four goals in what proved to be a game-deciding 17 minutes of hockey.

Minot, coming off a matchup against Century that required three overtimes to decide, was victimized almost immediately coming out of the first intermission by a well-rested Bismarck team that made quick work of Dickinson on Friday evening.

“We knew we had plenty of energy in the tank,” Peluso said. “They were a worn out hockey team after a long game last night in a heck of a battle. We felt that if we could continue to get pucks in behind them and just put pressure on them that we could wear them down, and that is sort of what happened in the second half of the game.”

Irey, who completed a hat trick during the second period alone, put Bismarck up on the scoreboard and effectively opened up the floodgates with a goal at the 1:54 mark. Three minutes later, the senior forward notched his second goal of the period on a shot assisted by Ryan Clancy and Jakob Parisien.

Caleb Petrie, who registered a hat trick during Friday’s game, buried a breakaway goal at the 11:37 mark before Irey capped off the his trifecta with a power-play marker as the period was coming to a close.

“You look at our entire tournament, who scored the goals and we spread it out pretty well,” Peluso said. “I like seeing different individuals every night stepping up big. Petrie had the big game yesterday, [Eric] Pladsen on Thursday and then you got T.J. today. Those are your big players, and they need to play big in big games.

“They’re going to have to get themselves ready because they’re going to have to do the exact same thing next week.”

T.J. Ball and Parisien each netted goals early in the third period, effectively driving the nail into the coffin and solidifying Bismarck’s third West Region title in four seasons.

“You never get used to it,” Peluso said. “I think our biggest thing has been trying to put ourselves in a good position for the state tournament. Funny things happen, we have been victims of it before where we have had a pretty good seed, something gets upset out east and that messes it up.

“This year I think it kind of stayed true to form, and again, you just got to give yourself the best possible chance.”

Bismarck is set to return to the ice next Thursday at 6 p.m. in Fargo for a matchup with Devil’s Lake in the opening round of the state tournament. The Demons, who finished runner-up to Grand Forks Red River last season, will take aim at returning to the championship using the same strategy as always – one day at a time.

“We’re going to just dial it in and take one day at a time,” Peluso said. “We’ll prepare for that first game because you can’t take care of tomorrow if you don’t take care of today. That is our mentality here.”

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