The Bottineau-Rugby Braves kicked off the 2024-2025 Western Dakota Association (WDA) hockey season this week and took a home win while dropping one at home in Rugby.

The Braves will host Jamestown on Friday, December 6, followed by hosting Dickinson on Saturday, December 7, at the Bottineau Community Arena this week.

May-Port Area 5, Bottineau-Rugby 3

In non-WDA action on Saturday, November 30, May-Port Area from the Eastern Dakota Conference (EDC) made the trip to Rugby to face the Braves.

May-Port started the scoring for the match in the first period when Caron Brayden found Alex Aarsvold with a pass that led to the only goal of the period at the 4:53 mark for the 1-0 lead.

May-Port added an unassisted goal by Wyatt Heskin at the 2:12 mark of the second period for the 2-0 lead at that point.

The Braves found the net at the 3:16 mark when Cooper Beckman hit off a Brody Nordmark pass to put one on the scoreboard for Bottineau-Rugby. Grady Glasner found the net at 6:41 of the second period on a power play goal to even the score at 2-2 with Tukker Fedje and Khaliel Abdurrahman being awarded the assists.

At the 8:24 mark, Heskin scored for May-Port with Brayden getting the assist while Cale Gensrich found the net with Jonathan Muhs and Liam Marquardt each awarded assists for another goal at the 11:20 mark of the second period. May-Port held the 4-2 lead at the end of two.

In the third period, Payton Getzlaff scored at the 11:03 mark for the Braves. Grady Glasner and Fedje were awarded assists. At the 15:09 mark of the third period, Sawyer McGillis hit an unassisted goal for May-Port to reach the 5-3 mark for the game.

May-Port Area had four penalties while Bottineau-Rugby had one in the match. Bottineau-Rugby goalie Noah Bedlion faced 34 shots on goal and saved 29 while May-Port goalie Kaden Hogloss faced 53 shots on goal and saved 50 in the strong defensive effort.

Bottineau-Rugby 3,

Devils Lake 2

The Bottineau-Rugby boys hockey team started their season by hosting Devils Lake on Wednesday, November 26, and came away with the win in game one of the year.

The Braves found the net at the 4:14 mark of the first period when Casey Freeman scored from passes by Gavin Bartsch and Khaliel Abdurrahman for the 1-0 lead.

Bottineau-Rugby scored again in the second period at the 12:45 mark when Tukker Fedje found Payton Getzlaff who hit the net for the 2-0 lead.

The Firebirds opened up the third period scoring with a goal at 3:55 by Thomas Conner. Getzlaff found the net again off passes by Fedje and Grady Glasner at the 4:05 mark of the third to keep the two goal lead for the Braves.

Brody Parker found the net for the final goal of the match at the 4:57 mark of the third period to give the Braves the 3-2 win.