Tonka beat an outmatched Armstrong team Thursday night to run their record to 19-0. The Skippers scored on both power play opportunities and held Armstrong to no shots on goal in the first period. Tonka allowed only 10 Falcon shots for the entire game. The Skippers had 3 players who registered 2 goals apiece and they were Jake Rossman, Jake Thornberg, and Max Gardiner. Max Coatta also picked up 4 assists, while Connor Ryan assisted on 3 goals. Also scoring for Tonka was Thomas Schutt, Max Coatta, Derek Frawley, and Sam Rothstein. Troy Hesketh continued his outstanding defensive play and also ended this game with an eye popping +7!!. Alex Glockner stopped 9 of the 10 shots he faced and is now 5-0 on the season.

On Saturday afternoon the Skippers faced their toughest game of the year against the Wayzata Trojans. For the first time in the history of the Plymouth Ice Center fans had to be turned away as the arena was at capacity 30 minutes prior to the opening face off. From the initial drop of the puck it was evident Wayzata was not impressed with the Skippers 19-0 record, nor had they read any of the numerous press articles written over the last few months.

While the stats were virtually identical with no power play goals, 8 minutes of penalties for both teams, and shots favoring Wayzata by a slim margin of 26-24, the Trojans controlled the flow of play for most of the game. The big sheet of ice clearly gave the Skippers some unexpected problems in terms of passing, defensive play, and especially their spacing in both the offensive and defensive zones. Wayzata used the big sheet to their advantage and had numerous good scoring chances in the slot, as they outworked and outskated the Skippers, winning most of the important battles in the corners. Wayzata took a 1-0 lead in the first period. Tommy Lundquist put a hard wrist shot in the back of the net to open the 3rd period to tie the game, and it seemed to give the Tonka squad some life, but the Wayzata defensemen continued to play very well.

If not for the stellar play of Jim Kruger, Tonka would now be 19-1, instead of 19-0-1. Most of the Tonka faithful thought Kruger had his best game of the season, and this has included some outstanding games Kruger has played this year. Kruger stopped 25 of 26 shots, with many of those shots being excellent scoring chances.

Tonka is now 19-0-1 and still unbeaten, but the disappointment on their faces was evident as the exited the locker room. The Skippers will take on the surging Royals of Hopkins this Saturday night at Pagel.

The lessoned learned is an old one in that any team can be tied....or beaten....on any given afternoon, and this is especially true of a team with such a large target on their backs for much of the season. The silver lining is that the wake up call occurred on a Saturday afternoon in late January. From the comments heard around the rink this week, it appears as if the wake up call was heard loud and clear, and they are ready to begin a new streak against the visiting Royals this Saturday.