Blue Jay boys hockey snapped a four-year state tournament drought Saturday in Minot.
Jamestown High School scored four unanswered goals and defeated Bottineau-Rugby 4-2 in state-qualifying action of the West Region tournament at Maysa Arena. The Jays are headed to next week's state playoff at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks for the first time since 2013.
"I'm just happy for the kids. It's a good feeling," said Blue Jay boys hockey coach Matt Stockert. "There's a lot of them in that room that haven't had this feeling before.
"They've heard about it, but haven't felt it."
The Blue Jays' scoring tandem of senior Devin Hofmann and eighth-grader Alex Senf have led Jamestown offensively all winter, and the duo didn't disappoint against the Braves. Hofmann and Senf put the Jays out front 2-0 after one period, scoring their 23rd and 18th goals of the season, respectively.
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Blue Jay sophomore defenseman Easton Hagen then lit the lamp scoring his first-career varsity goal nearly two minutes into the second. Fellow sophomore blue liner Corey Nelson followed suit with a short-handed tally for Jamestown-his third goal of the season-with four minutes remaining before period No. 3.
Hofmann has scored seven of his team-leading 23 goals in Jamestown's three victories over the Braves, but a five-minute boarding penalty assessed to Hofmann in the third allowed Bottineau-Rugby a chance to slip back into the game.
Landon Rosendahl and Jace Scherr each banged home power-play goals for the Braves with the man advantage. But Jamestown ultimately outshot its opponent 38-25 with all-state senior goalie Matthew Schneider collecting 23 saves for the blue birds.
"Hats off to Bottineau. They dug down on that five-minute power play and found a way to put a couple pucks in the net," Stockert said. "But overall I'm happy with the boys. When that group of 20 decides to put their hard hats on and go to work, we're a pretty tough hockey team."
Blue Jay senior defenseman Baylee Hatlewick finished Jamestown's 13 victory of the season-the most since 2013-with three assists.
The Jays, with the win, earned the West Region's third seed in the upcoming state tournament and will face the East Region's No. 2 seed in the state quarterfinals.
"We're just going to enjoy next week, for sure," Stockert said. "There's some pretty skilled teams over there in the East Region, but our kids can't change the way they've been playing. We'll just have the same mentality-strap them on tight and see what happens."
Jamestown 4, Bottineau-Rugby 2
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BR 0 0 2 -- 2
JAM 2 2 0 -- 4
Scoring
First period
1. J, Devin Hofmann (Baylee Hatlewick), 7:01; 2. J, Alex Senf (Bryce Nelson, Connor Fuchs), 15:31.
Second period
3. J, Easton Hagen (Hatlewick, Corey Nelson), 1:53; 4. J, Nelson (Hatlewick), 13:03 SH.
Third period
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5. BR, Landon Rosendahl (Adam Handeland, Ian Amsbaugh), 7:15 PP; 6. BR, Jace Scherr (unassisted), 8:29 PP.
Goalie saves: BR, Tyler Olson 11-13-10--34. J, Matthew Schneider 9-11-3--23.
Penalties: BR, 4 for 8 minutes. J, 5 for 13 minutes.
Records: Jamestown 13-10. Bottineau-Rugby 8-12-2.
