By WJBC Staff
FARGO, N.D. – Vlad Dzhioshvili netted his eighth multi-point game of the season and Gabe Mollot-Hill turned aside a career-high 38 shots, but the Fargo Force struck twice in the third period to slip past the Bloomington Thunder, 3-2, on Saturday night at Scheels Arena.
Martin Sundberg scored 8:46 into the third period and Hank Crone netted the game-winning tally with 3:53 left in regulation to help the Western Conference’s third place team overcome a pair of one-goal deficits.
Following a career-high 32 saves on Friday night, Mollot-Hill (Providence College) put together one of his best starts of the season in the series finale. Mollot-Hill established a new career-high for the second consecutive game, while facing a career-high 41 shots.
The Thunder offense took leads into both the second in the third periods thanks to goals from Calen Kiefiuk (University of Michigan) and Dzhioshvili (University of Vermont), respectively.
Kiefiuk propelled the Thunder (17-17-3-2, 39 pts) ahead in the first period, collecting a rebound in the slot and floating a backhander past Fargo goaltender Matt Murray. After a hard-working shift and several chances by Kiefiuk, Vlad Dzhioshvili, and Griffin Lunn, Kiefiuk tracked down the puck through a host of bodies and found the back of the net for his third tally of the season.
Fargo (24-14-2-0, 50 pts) tied the game 5:14 into the second, but Dzhioshvili continued his rampant pace of late and scored the go-ahead goal. He went coast-to-coast and beat Murray, going bar down on a bullet of a wrist shot from between the circles only 2:07 later.
The goal and assist for Dzhioshvili gave him back-to-back multi-point games for the second time in his career and ran his point streak to a modest three games. The Moscow, Russia, native has five points in that stretch and points in seven of his last eight games.
The Thunder return home next weekend to host the Youngstown Phantoms for a two-game series on Feb. 9-10. That series starts with Chicago Blackhawks Night on Feb. 9, featuring 2013 Stanley Cup Champion Jamal Mayers, National Anthem soloist Jim Cornelison, Blackhawks Mascot Tommy Hawk, and the Bud Light Ice Crew.
