Spacemen send disappointed Ducks to Thanksgiving break

By Jim den Hollander
Editor/Publisher
Saukhockey.info
The Dells Ducks hoped for a better finish to the first half of their regular season but there have been plenty of positives to grab from their recent games.

The Ducks wrapped up play at the Detroit Showcase Sunday with a 6-2 loss against the Fort Wayne Spacemen, perhaps the toughest opponent faced at the Motown event.

Dells Ducks

After winning its opener against the Decatur Blaze, the Ducks dropped a pair against the Motor City Gamblers and Columbus Mavericks Saturday, then closed it out Sunday against the Spacemen.
Fort Wayne entered the contest with a 2-1 record on the weekend, including a win in its first game against the Metro Jets on Friday. On Saturday the Spacemen defeated the third Metro team, MHC and added a 4-3 edge against 4-3 edge against the Steele County Blades. The win against the Ducks clinched them as one of only two teams that wrapped up the weekend with a 4-0 record.
Two goals in both the first and second had the Spacemen up 4-0 heading to the third and they added another before Ethan Matthews (‘02/South Bend, IN) finally got the Ducks on the board with help from Bryce Jacobsen (‘02/DeForest, WI). The assist for Jacobsen was his 50th point as a Duck.

One of the team’s newest additions, Mikel Ferran Cobo (‘04/Mexico City, Mexico) collected his second goal of the weekend later, from Jacobsen and Matthews.
Jacobsen and starting goaltender Jadon Mammen were both playing for the first time on the weekend after sitting out a three-game suspension following an altercation the previous weekend in Isanti.
The weekend win moved the Ducks past the eighth place Minnesota Mullets but the Steele County Blades, currently seventh enjoyed a five-point weekend and widened its gap on the Ducks while climbing into a sixth-place tie with the Blue Ox – both six points up on the Ducks now.

The Ducks will return to action on Dec. 1 with a quick dash to the Twin Cities for a Thursday night contest against the Minnesota Mullets at Augsburg University Ice Arena. The following Thursday will see the team back at Augsburg for a rematch, but they will stay in town a Friday/Saturday pair against the Minnesota Moose in Blaine.

Next home game for the Ducks will be Jan. 7, 2023, against the Steele County Blades.

Motown is mean town to Ducks Saturday

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

After a promising start Friday, the Dells Ducks ran into a couple tough opponents Saturday at the USPHL Premier Midwest-West Detroit Showcase.

Once again, goals were hard to come by for the Ducks who were shutout by the Motor City Gamblers Saturday afternoon and dropped a 5-2 decision against the Columbus Mavericks Saturday night, bringing the team to the halfway mark on its regular season.

Dells Ducks

Gamblers 5 Ducks 0

The Gamblers, formerly known as the Detroit Fighting Irish from the Midwest-East Division dominated the Ducks with a 37-17 edge in shots including a 16-5 margin in the first period.

Chris Mazurek (‘03/Batavia, IL) was beaten three times in that opening period but limited the Gamblers to just two more goals on 21 shots the rest of the way. One of the Gamblers’ goals came from Jayden Tkaczuk who played the previous two seasons with the Ducks and led the team in scoring in 2020-21.

Mavericks 5 Ducks 2

Saturday night, the Mavs opened the scoring with two goals 1:42 apart but Ducks’ defender Jack Kopfstein (‘05/Vista, CA) pulled one back later in the period with his eight of the season from Logan Potts (‘03/Allen, TX) and Mikel Ferran Cobo (‘04/Mexico City, Mexico).

The Mavericks, from the USPHL’s Great Lakes Division, added another a few minutes later to carry a 3-1 lead out of the opening period and that stood up until the final frame when two more had the Mavericks up 5-1 before Kai Neumaier (‘03/St. Charles, IL) pulled one more back late in the contest.

Anthony Falzone went to the blue paint for the second time on the weekend, facing 38 shots in the contest.

The Saturday losses dropped the team’s overall record to 4-15-2-1 at the 22-game mark, leaving 22 to play in the regular season.

The Ducks have one game left in Detroit, wrapping up the pre-Thanksgiving portion of its schedule today (Sunday, Nov. 20) against the Fort Wayne Spacemen from the Midwest-East Division.

Falzone, Brown lead Ducks past Decatur Blaze

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

We’re Number Eight! We’re Number Eight!

The Dells Ducks avenged a Showcase defeat from a season ago and packed up their belongings to move out of the USPHL Premier Midwest-West Division basement.

The Ducks took on the winless Decatur Blaze from the Midwest-East Division Friday in its first of four games at the Detroit Showcase. Despite missing three players due to suspensions, the Ducks never trailed on their way to a 4-2 win.

The same two teams met in the first game for both at the Chicago Showcase in what might have been the toughest loss of the season for the Ducks. Despite battling back from a 5-1 deficit in the third period to even the score, it was Decatur with the overtime game winner.

This time around the Ducks left no doubt, building a 3-0 lead through the first two periods and adding one more down the stretch.

Ethan Matthews (‘02/South Bend, IN) fired the only goal of the first period for the Ducks.

Adam Brown notched the next for the Ducks in the fifth minute of the middle period and the team’s newest player, Mikel Ferran Cobo (‘02/Mexico City, Mexico) made an immediate impression scoring the eventual game winning marker 24 seconds from the end of the period. Cobo’s goal was a tip on a shot from the point by Brown.

Backing up the players in goal was Anthony Falzone (‘03/Prosper, TX) who collected his third junior victory and first of the season, stopping all but two of 27 shots faced. Ryan Zeno scored the first Blaze goal but Logan Potts (‘03/Allen, Texas) responded with just over three minutes to play.

The Blaze added one more just 29 seconds from the final buzzer.

The win is the fourth in the past six games for the Ducks who have resurrected a dismal start to the campaign. After playing through 14 games without a win, the locals have not just hit the win column, but now have officially moved into playoff contention, moving by the Minnesota Mullets into eighth place in the division.

It’s worth noting the Mullets, the only team in the division the Ducks have yet to play against, have played fewer games. The Mullets have dropped six straight including this afternoon (Friday, Nov. 18) with a 3-0 loss to the Wisconsin Rapids Riverkings.

The Ducks sit at 4-13-2-1 for 11 points, now two up on the 4-13-0-1 Mullets and just one point behind the seventh place (6-11-0-0) Steele County Blades.

The local squad will be back on the ice at 2:30 EST Saturday to take on the 10-9-0-1 Motor City Gamblers from the Midwest-East and return at 8:30 EST against the 6-10-1-0 Columbus Mavericks from the Great Lakes Division.

Wrapping up the weekend Sunday is a game against the Fort Wayne Spacemen, another Midwest-East team at 3:30 p.m.

Players will disperse for their first break since Labor Day weekend, heading home for Thanksgiving. After returning the Ducks will play the Mullets twice at Augsburg University Ice Arena Dec. 1 and Dec. 8.

Ducks could pick up some revenge at Detroit Showcase

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

The Dells Ducks will wrap up a stretch of 14 games played over the past four weekends with its second Showcase event of the season, this time in Fraser, MI, near Detroit.

Dells Ducks

The Ducks will be playing in the Detroit Showcase for the first time, substituting it for its annual east coast trek taken in previous seasons.

The Ducks roll into the event having won three of its past five games and as hot as it has been in a couple seasons.

For the Ducks, the event will begin on Friday (Nov. 18) with a 7 p.m. (EST) puck drop against the Decatur Blaze. The Ducks played the Blaze at the Chicago Showcase last season and fell 6-5 in overtime. This season the 3-13-3 Ducks will be facing a Blaze team with just one win in 17 games in the Midwest-East Division.

The busiest day will be Saturday as the Ducks play twice, squaring off against the Motor City Gamblers at 2:30 p.m. EST and returning for an 8:30 p.m. game against the Columbus Mavericks. The Ducks also played both teams at last season’s Chicago Showcase, falling 6-5 to the Gamblers, known then as the Detroit Fighting Irish and beaten badly by the Mavs. This season the Gamblers enter with a 9-9 record in the Midwest East and the Mavericks are struggling at 6-9-1 in the Great Lakes Division.

Wrapping up the tournament and the pre-Thanksgiving schedule will be a 3:30 p.m. game Sunday against the Fort Wayne Spacemen from the Midwest-East Division. The Spacemen are off to a solid start this season and this game will be the first ever between these two teams.

Ducks claim win at Showcase finale

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

After a pair of hard-fought narrow defeats, the Dells Ducks closed out USPHL Premier play at the annual Chicago Showcase tournament with a lopsided defeat followed by its fourth win of the season.

The Columbus Mavericks from the Great Lakes Division were simply too tough for the Ducks, playing without the services of young defender Jack Kopfstein and goaltender Anthony Falzone, both injured in the earlier matches and joining Kai Neumaier who went to the sidelines a few weeks earlier. The end result was a 10-1 win for the Mavs.

But the team bounced back in its final game, collecting a 5-4 margin against the Wooster Oilers, also from the Great Lakes Division.

The game against the Mavericks was the second of the day Friday (Dec. 17) after an impressive but ultimately unsuccessful 6-5 loss to the Detroit Fighting Irish earlier in the day. On Thursday the team rallied back from a 5-1 deficit before falling in overtime against the Decatur Blaze 6-5.

Ducks 1 Mavericks 10

The Mavericks currently sit third in the Great Lakes Division and strengthened their position with four unanswered first period goals, widening the gap to 6-1 in the second before piling on four more down the stretch.

Caden Glamkowski (‘04/St. Charles, IL) scored the lone goal, making it a 4-1 game early in the second period with his seventh goal of the weekend and 25^th of the season, from Jayden Tkaczuk (‘02/Channahon, IL).

Anthony Falzone and William Carney were peppered with a total of 54 Mavericks’ shots and the Ducks managed just 19 at the other end of the pond.

The game was costly with the injury to Falzone as well as the loss of Bryce Jacobson, forced to sit out the final game of the weekend after a fight.

Ducks 6 Oilers 5

The Ducks and Oilers met for the second time after squaring off at an east coast Showcase event in November. The Ducks won that one 9-2. This one ended up much closer, but the Ducks seemed in control from start to finish, scoring first and carrying a 3-1 lead out of the opening period.

The Oilers held a 3-2 edge through the middle period, closing the game to 5-4 and the Ducks restored its two-goal cushion near the halfway mark of the third before the Oilers made the final 2:37 interesting getting within one shot again.

Glamkowski scored two more goals for the Ducks, matched by Tkaczuk and others came from Seth Stoutenburg (‘03/Roseville, MN) and Jace Weimer (‘05).

The Ducks outshot the Oilers 39-23, snapping a nine-game losing streak and boosting its overall record this season to 4-26-1, one more win than the team collected in 2020-21.

The Ducks players scattered following the Wooster break, returning to their respective hometowns for the Christmas Break. Players will arrive back in town in early January and begin preparations for its final 13 games, starting on home ice with a pair of games against the Minnesota Mullets Jan. 7-8.

Ducks so close to big wins at Chicago Showcase

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

Two games into a four-game weekend at the annual Chicago Showcase tournament, the Ducks turned in two amazing efforts, but have just a single point to show for it.

After a 6-5 overtime loss against the Decatur Blaze Thursday, a late goal lifted the Detroit Fighting Irish to a 6-5 regulation win in a crazy contest.

The news became much worse as a broken collar bone for ‘05 defender Jack Kopfstein could sideline him as long as the remainder of the regular season.

That came in a wild gritty effort as reinforcements have resulted in not only a tougher, more resilient Ducks team but a team that can come up some big plays in the late minutes of the game.

Dells Ducks 5 Decatur Blaze 6

Against the Decatur Blaze on Thursday night, it was the Blaze grabbing control with three goals in less than three minutes in the first period adding another in the middle frame to carry a 4-1 lead into the final 17-minute segment.

The lone Ducks’ goal at that point belonged to Bryce Jacobsen (‘02/DeForest, WI) with an assist to Ryan Parkin, suiting up for the Ducks this weekend.

The Blaze widened the mark to 5-1 in the third before the Ducks went to work.

Caden Glamkowski (‘04/St. Charles, IL) kicked off another awesome weekend with the second goal from Gage Senio (‘04/Red Deer, AB) and Jacob Cartland (‘02/Mukwonago, WI). There was just 7:45 to play then so making it a three-goal cushion didn’t seem like an important goal.

But Senio hit the twine, from Seth Stoutenburg (‘03/Roseville, MN) about two minutes later and Glamkowski made it a one-goal game from Braedon Keel (‘03/Sylvania, Ohio) with 2:46 to go. Jacobsen’s second of the contest, from Glamkowski completed the comeback, but an overtime goal for the Blaze gave the team a not so happy ending.

Dells Ducks 5 Detroit Fighting Irish 6

Facing the Irish in an early game and its first of a pair on Friday, the Ducks were facing a team that manhandled them by a wide margin in a couple pre-season tests in August.

It appeared the same result could be coming when the Irish owned a 2-0 lead 7:34 into the game, but goals by Tkaczuk and Glamkowski evened the score by he end of the opening period. Glamkowski also had an assist along with Adam Chaudhri (‘04/Allen, TX) and Thomas Howell (‘04/Gilmer, TX).

Teams traded another pair each in the second, both Ducks goals fired by Glamkowski with help from Tkaczuk and Johnson.

Ducks rallied back to tie the game again, Glamkowski adding another with 2:41 to play, from Tkaczuk, but the Irish sank one more just over a minute later to snatch the win.

Ducks are scheduled to play again today (Friday, Dec. 17) against the Columbus Mavericks at 4:40 p.m. and will wrap up its pre-Christmas schedule Saturday at 2:20 p.m. against the Wooster Oilers.