by Mark McKenzie

MANDAN – The Blue Jay boys hockey team hit the road Tuesday night for a West Region game at Mandan.  Jamestown only led once the entire game when Senior Jackson Maddock struck 45 seconds into overtime, his seventh of the season, to give Jamestown the 5-4 victory.

Mandan raced out to a quick 1-0 lead when senior Carson Joersz scored 19 seconds into the game but Jamestown answered when senior Nate Walz deflected in his sixth of the season with only 44 seconds gone in the game.

The wild start continued when Mandan senior Mason Brew scored at the 1:14 mark to give the lead right back to the Braves.

Jamestown eventually fell behind 3-1 in period two but rallied for a pair of goals to tie the game. Junior John Belzer cut the deficit to 3-2 with a breakaway goal with 5:11 gone in the second, his fourth of the season and sophomore Brady Nenow tied the game at the 12:01 mark with his third of the year.

Joersz got his second of the game and seventh of the season with only 3:36 remaining to give the Braves a 4-3 lead but Junior Bennett Goehner poked in a rebound goal on the power play his sixth of the season, with only 1:45 remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime.

Jamestown outshot Mandan 24-19 with senior goalie Cooper Kirkeby stopping 15 shots to improve his record to 3-0 between the pipes.

The win moved Jamestown, 6-3-1-1, into a second place tie with Bismarck Legacy in the West Region standings.  Each team has 21 points.

Next up for Jamestown is the only unbeaten team in North Dakota boys high school hockey as Minot comes to town Friday  at 7:30 PM at Wilson Arena. The Magicians are 13-0-0-0, including a 9-2 shellacking of Jamestown in December in the Magic City.