“A lot of the good was just the little stuff,” said White Hawks assistant coach Cooper Curti. “I told them that [Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato is] a physical team. I think the players listened and that [physicality] changed the game.”  

The visiting Dragons were without top point-getter, senior Calvin Jones for this game as he was dealing with an injury. It ended up being a big loss for the Dragons, who scored 56 goals in 12 games prior to tonight. Jones was also the reigning Top Performer from last week, after recording nine points in two signature Dragons wins.  

But it was the play on the ice from the White Hawks that proved to be the story of the night. After losing most of last year’s offense to graduations and transfers, Mike Curti was happy to see his forwards like Pouchnik shine. 

“At the beginning of the year, we made a point of asking who’s going to step up. And we’ve had a couple guys like Joey (Pouchnik) and Blake Decker who’ve made it their team now,” Mike Curti said. “I think we lost about 90 percent of the scoring from last year … But now these guys can put their own stamp on this team.” 

It was the second period where the White Hawks were especially strong. They scored three goals in a span of three and a half minutes, two of them coming from the Thurston-Pouchnik connection. It was also a fairly clean game penalty-wise, with each team finishing with one a piece. But the physicality still showed from both teams as the game progressed.  

The Dragons managed to get themselves on the board midway through the final period. Senior Jaxon Gustafson got his sixth goal of the season during a scrappy play. But that was all the away team could muster for scoring. Decker added the seventh for the White Hawks shortly after Gustafson’s goal to wrap up the night.  

“These guys have finally found their roles. It’s taken a while, but you get the time to work with them and the lines are really meshing, which is fun to see,” Cooper Curti said.