Buffalo High School Hockey

The Brainerd Warriors proved to be a little too much for the Bison in the Section 8AA Boys Hockey Tournament.

The Brainerd Warriors proved to be a little too much for the Bison in the Section 8AA Boys Hockey Tournament. The Buffalo season came to an end in the quarterfinals Tuesday night when Brainerd pulled out a 7-4 victory.

The Warriors, ranked No. 3 for the tournament, came out strong on their home ice and led 4-1 in the first period. Sophomore Sam Klein scored the lone Bison goal of the period, which made it a 3-1 game at the time.

“We came out slow, which gave us some trouble,” Coach Mike MacMillan said.

Brainerd pulled ahead 5-1 in the second period, but the Bison fought their way back into it with a pair of goals from senior Devon Siverhaus to come within two, 5-3.

“I thought we were the better team in the second, and probably in the third except for some penalty trouble,” MacMillan said.

The third period was a standoff early on until the Bison put two men in the penalty box, giving Brainerd a 5-on-3 situation. They took advantage and scored to take a 6-3 lead.

Buffalo got one back when junior Reid Trousdale scored later in the third, but Brainerd wasn’t finished yet and scored one final goal to win 7-4.

The Bison, who were given the No. 6 seed for the tournament, were out-shot 30-16 in the game. Sophomore goalie Blake Schmidt stopped 23 Brainerd shots. Junior Nick Jones had two assists in the game.

MacMillan gave credit to seniors Josh Gaughan and Buzz Tryggeseth, who rarely came off the ice in the game.

“I was really proud of the kids,” MacMillan said. “They fought back really hard.”

Buffalo finished the season with a 7-18-1 record, while Brainerd advances to the section semifinals with a 23-3 record. The Warriors will take on Roseau in the semifinals on Saturday. 

Other results:

Buffalo finished the regular season on Saturday with a home game against Minnetonka — the No. 1-ranked team in the state — and lost 6-0. The Skippers scored four goals in the first period, added one in the second, and one more in the third.

The Bison only managed 13 shots on goal in the game to 38 for Minnetonka, which improved to 22-1-2 with the win.

 Last week, Buffalo lost a 5-3 game to Cambridge-Isanti, and lost a 10-1 game to state-ranked Edina.

On Tuesday, Feb. 16, the Bison fell behind Cambridge 3-0 in the first period, but clawed their way back with one goal in the second and two in the third to tie the game at 3-3.

Senior Billy Ogdahl scored in the second period, and Klein added a goal in the third. Trousdale scored a power-play goal later in the third period to tie the game, but the Bluejackets fired back with two unanswered goals late in the period to win 5-3. The final goal was scored on an empty Bison net.

Buffalo out-shot Cambridge 37-24 for the game.

Playing at Edina on Thursday, Feb. 18, the Bison were crushed in the first period. They were out-shot 31-3 and trailed 4-0 on the scoreboard. Edina then scored four more goals in the second period with two coming in the first eight seconds of play.

Down 8-0, the Ogdahl found the back of the net on a power play to get the Bison on the board, but trailing 8-1. The Hornets scored twice more in the first four minutes of the third period and won 10-1.

Edina was dominant throughout the game. The Bison only managed eight shots on goal in the game and just one in the third period. Edina had 66 shots on goal.

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