Friday
Alexandria 4 @ Granite City 1 (Alexandria leads best of three series, 1-0) – Alexandria gets on the board first with a goal from Ian Ecklund. Getting the assist on the play was Tanner Skaja. In the 2nd Alexandria gets another two goals, the first from Danny Pelzer and the second from Joe Anderson on the power play. Granite City gets their first and only goal in the 2nd from Luke Richardson. In the 3rd Bo Gronseth gets an empty netter for Alexandria to seal game 1.
Saturday
Granite City 3 @ Alexandria 2 (Best of three series tied 1-1) – Granite City ties the series up at one a piece with a 3-2 win in game 2. The 1st period remains scoreless but Alexandria gets the scoring started off in the 2nd with a power play goal from Aaron Ryback. Schmidt and Kihle get the assists on the play. Granite City ties the game up with a power play goal from Luke Richardson at just under half way through the period. Alexandria gets the go ahead goal at the start of the 3rd on a penalty shot from Joe Anderson. Granite City ties the game back up with a goal from Travis Kothenbeutel. Taylor Brown gets a short handed goal for Granite City to take the lead and hold on for the win. Scott Murray gets the win with 30 saves.
Sunday
Alexandria Blizzard 2 @ Granite City Lumberjacks 4 (Granite City wins best of three series, 2-1) –Lumberjacks beat the Blizzard on Sunday, 4-2 to advance to the West Division Finals where they will face the defending champion North Iowa Bulls.
Things looked good for the Lumberjacks early in the game as Drew Otto singlehandedly put Granite City ahead 2-0 with back-to-back goals just three minutes apart. However, the Blizzard would show some resolve as they struck back twice to tie the game. Just :12 second after Otto made it 2-0, Mick Dhein scored to make it 2-1. Tom Schmidt then scored to make it 2-2 with just about three minutes to go in an active 1st period.
The 2nd period is when Granite City took over late in the period thanks to two power play goals. First, Taylor Brown scored the eventual game-winning goal with under four minutes to play in the period as Otto picked up his 3rd point of the game with an assist. Just over two minutes later David Kenney added an insurance goal to make it 4-2.
In a scoreless 3rd period, Granite City goalie Scott Murray made 10 of his 26 saves to secure the win. Evan Bisek took the loss in goal for the Blizzard, making 28 saves as Alexandria’s season came to a close.