Watford City Oilers hockey teams head to state tournaments
The Watford City Junior Gold hockey team lost games to the Richland Rangers, 7-4, and the Fargo Freeze, 8-3, as the Oilers head to the state tournament in Crosby. The Oilers will take on Crosby at 8 p.m. on March 3, in opening round state tournament action.
In hockey action against the Richland Rangers, the Oilers led 2-1 on two goals by Rylan Olson before ending the first period tied at 2-2.
The Rangers scored the only two goals in the second period, and started the scoring in the third period, giving the Oilers a 2-5 hole to dig out of. Olson scored his hat trick goal just over five minutes into the period reducing the Rangers lead to two. The Rangers answered less than two minutes later with Gabe Smith scoring on an assist from Carson Voll to trail by two with less than three minutes to play.
The Oilers pulled their goalie, John Blegen, for an extra attacker and had multiple scoring chances that they just could not capitalize on. The last goal of the game was a rink-long shot that the Rangers put into the empty net to take the 7-4 win.