by Mark McKenzie
MINOT – The dream of making it to the state high school hockey tournament came crashing down Saturday for the Blue Jay boys hockey team as they suffered a 3-2 defeat to Bottineau-Rugby in a state qualification game at MAYSA Arena.
The Jays beat the Braves twice during the season but Jamestown ran into a red hot hockey team.
In the past few weeks, the sixth-seeded Braves have defeated second seed Bismarck Century, third seed Bismarck Legacy, fourth seed Mandan Braves and now the fifth-seeded Blue Jays.
Bottineau-Rugby struck for a goal just 55 seconds into the game courtesy of sophomore Casey Freeman, his third of the season, that energized the team and the Braves crowd.
Freshman Parker Roelfsema answered with a rebound goal, his 16th of the season at the 5:20 mark of period one to tie the game. Senior Jackson Maddock took the initial shot and picked up his 15th assist of the season and senior Nate Walz registered his 18th assist of the season.
B-R sophomore Grady Glasner gave his team the lead right back when he blasted in his seventh of the season at the 9:37 mark of period one.
The Braves extended the lead to 3-1 in period two when senior Brody Nordmark snapped in his seventh of the season.
Jamestown got a much needed goal at the 5:34 mark of period three when Walz spun a pass out front and Maddock blistered it home to cut the deficit to 3-2 but the Jays were unable to get the equalizer over the final ten and a half minutes and saw its season come to an end at 13-9-1-1.
The Braves head to state with a 11-10-3-0 record and riding the coattails of a red hot goalie.
Sophomore Mason Lynnes stopped 25 shots for B-R including an incredible save on Jays junior Max Whitman in the final minutes that would have tied the game.
Jamestown sophomore netminder Leif Hanson made 22 saves as the Blue Jays outshot the Braves 27-25.
Following the game, Maddock was named to the 2024-25 All-WDA team and so was senior Vaughn Romsdal. Maddock finished the season with 20 goals and 15 assists. Romsdal wrapped up his stellar season with seven goals and 15 assists.