Black Hawks Start The Season With A “W”
Aaron Bohlinger scored 1:22 into overtime, and the Waterloo Black Hawks won the first game of the 2019/20 USHL season, 2-1 versus the Tri-City Storm, during the USHL Fall Classic at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.
Playing three-on-three in extra time, Bohlinger worked to the bottom of the right circle, then cut across the ring with the puck. Moving in front of the net, the Black Hawks’ defenseman was falling to the ice, but still managed to slip the puck inside the post at the right of goalie Daniel Allin.
During the prior shift at the other end of the ice, Gabriel Carriere soaked up a pointblank chance from Benji Eckerle to keep the game going. On a night when goals were hard to come by, Carriere made 26 saves in the win. Allin stopped 25 shots for the Storm. Ondrej Psenicka banged in the first goal of the season at 14:42 of the opening period. Waiting at the top of the crease, Psenicka capitalized on the rebound of an initial shot by Matthew Argentina.
Tri-City tied the game less than four minutes later at 18:07; Joseph Molenaar swiped the puck at center, fought through a check which would have led to a Waterloo penalty, and fired in the only shot to beat Carriere. Both teams were sharp on the penalty kill. Waterloo denied multiple Storm power plays in each period and eight total during the game. Tri-City was six-for-six on the kill, including a staunch effort during the final two minutes of regulation.
Waterloo concludes their Pennsylvania trip Friday night versus the Fargo Force at 7 p.m. Central Time.