TROJAN BOYS HOCKEY: Janssen, Bartosh push Windom past WHS

WINDOM — ­Travis Janssen and Zach Bartosh each had a hat trick Thursday night, sparking the Windom Area Eagles to a quick 6-0 lead and a final 9-1 victory over the Worthington Trojans in a Southwest Conference boys hockey game.

Janssen also charted four assists to finish with seven total points, as the Eagles scored four power-play goals in the first period and took command right away to improve to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the conference.

“We got off to a good start in the first period,” Windom Area head coach Jon Ammerman said after the game. “We took advantage of the power-play opportunities that we had, and it was sure nice to play with the lead. Lots of guys contributed and helped create some scoring chances for us.”

Worthington’s Levi Leach scored with 13:05 remaining in the third period to prevent the shutout, as the Trojans fell to 0-5 overall and 0-4 in the conference.

“The first period was the story of the game, as we simply didn’t play well,” Worthington head coach Nate Grimmius said. “We were called for a 5-minute major penalty and were short a man that whole time, which allowed Windom to score four power-play goals. We just made too many mental mistakes defensively and also turned the puck over in our own zone too much.”

Bartosh got things started for the Eagles with a goal at the 14:14 mark of the opening period. Janssen and Kyle Luhmann (three assists) charted assists on the play to get Windom Area up 1-0 early.

Windom Area, which out shot Worthington 43-11, went ahead 2-0 about 5 minutes later when Janssen powered in a goal with a wrist shot from the slot.

The Eagles then went on the power play for the final 5 minutes of the period and quickly took a 4-0 lead when Bartosh and Devin Nielsen scored 10 seconds apart near the 4:30 mark. Mitchell Macek’s goal with 3:23 remaining, off assists from Janssen and Luhmann, widened the gap to 5-0.

Bartosh then collected his first career hat trick when he scored off a steal and nice pass from Janssen, increasing Windom’s cushion to 6-0 with 1:40 showing.

An unassisted goal by Nielsen and a goal by Janssen (assist Ryan Clark) accounted for the only scoring in the second period and gave the Eagles an 8-0 bulge.

Janssen then secured his hat trick with an unassisted goal at the 16:32 mark of the third period. Windom Area, sparked additionally by 10 saves from goalie Tyler McGowan, led 9-0 at that point.

Leach countered with Worthington’s lone goal with 13:05 remaining. It was an unassisted score that actually deflected off a Windom player before bouncing into the net.

Kody Honius, Alex Kremer and Jacob Oberloh also had good looks at the net late in the game for the Trojans, but were unable to score.

Rylan Scholtes made 28 saves through the first two periods for Worthington, while Alex Purdy stopped six shots in the third period.

Worthington is off until Thursday when it travels to play Fairmont. Windom Area hosts Morris/Benson on Saturday.

Worthington 0 0 1 — 1

Windom Area 6 2 1 — 9

Tags: sports, boys, hockey, trojans, windom