All Treats, No Tricks, for Ice Raiders Season Opening Sweep

Phillip Goodman
Oct 27
3 min read

By Phillip Goodman

October 27, 2025

The Ice Raiders started their fifth season at The Jennifer M. O’Neal Community Ice Arena and 10th as a franchise by sweeping the Park City Pioneers with an 8-2 win on Friday and 3-2 overtime thriller on Saturday.

Jake Minton led all scorers on Friday with three points on a goal and two helpers while Hunter Sine, Julian Herrera, Matt Robinson, Johnny Garrity and Will McDonnell all had two points each. Newcomer Rob Hallowell scored his first goal as an Ice Raider, Captain Andrew Peterson netted the game-tying goal, and Alex Gunnoe buried the winning power play goal in Saturday's nailbiter.

In the weekend series presented by Brain Bean, Halloween-costumed fans packed the arena on both nights. Many made their way through Reno Ice's haunted house fundraiser and were treated to a spooky ice dancing exhibition by the Sierra Nevada Skating Club.

"The crowd was amazing as usual," said Ice Raiders' third-year head coach Tim Tookey. "Glad we could pull off the OT win for them."

Reno outshot Park City 130-50 and won 94 of 148 draws (63.5%). On Friday, Justin Sand stopped 22 of 24 shots, the only getting by him were power play goals. Justis Gyori was equally good on Saturday, stopping 24 of 26 Pioneer shots.

Reno controlled the play at both ends and that started in the dots as Reno won 42 of 64 faceoffs, 23 of those wins in the offensive zone. Tony Civello kept the score close at 5-2 until halfway through the third when the Ice Raiders pulled away with three late goals Hunter Sine, Adam Barba, and Matt Robinson.

Reno was 0-for-4 on their Brewer's Cabinet Power Plays, nearly all of which were cut short because of penalties taken while on the advantage. Pioneers tallied 11 power play shots while Reno only had time for four.

Saturday's tilt was far different from Friday's rout from the get go. First-year Ice Raider Rob Hallowell potted his and Reno's first goal in the opening minutes. Park City was held scoreless through the first frame but then took advantage of an early second period power play to tie the game. Reno poured 23 shots on Civello in the second but the Minnesota-born netminder kept Reno off the board.

On the opening draw of the third, Will McDonnell won the puck back to Alex Gunnoe who attempted to evade a Pioneer forechecker by carrying the puck behind his goal. The puck stuck to a wet spot on the fresh ice giving Louis Poliquin the time and space to collect the puck and make a quick move around Gyori for the go-ahead goal.

The game temperature was mostly cool until halfway through the third when the parade to the penalty box began for both teams. Matt Robinson unleashed frustrations on a Pioneer from an earlier uncalled hit from behind and was given a double minor and game misconduct. Things boiled over a minute later when Pioneer Tyler Nelson barreled into Gyori and Gyori retaliated with a chop at Nelson's legs. Roger Hutchison wailed on a Pioneer and that got him the fight major and game misconduct also. Reno killed the penalties to keep their deficit at only one goal.

Reno pulled Gyori for the extra attacker at 1:39 and got an offensive zone draw at 1:14. On the ensuing faceoff, Jake Minton won the draw cleanly back to Andrew Peterson who floated a wrister through traffic and to beat Civello on the shortside for the game tying goal at 1:10.

Halfway through the overtime, Charlie Montgomery used his puck-carrying speed through the neutral zone and drew a hooking penalty on Lucas Demsar. On the ensuing power play, Alex Gunnoe took Andrew Peterson's pass from the neutral zone to the top of the right circle and fired a wrister past Civello to send the Reno crowd into an absolute frenzy.

"It was nice to start the season with two wins," said Tookey. "We got ourselves in penalty trouble in the second game. We needed to get traffic in front of Civello and we got that on the tying goal. It was nice to see Alex score in overtime after his miscue on Park City's second goal."

The Ice Raiders are off for Halloween weekend and will return to The Jennifer M. O’Neal Community Ice Arena on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8 for a pair against the Bozeman Stingers. Both games presented by Cure Biomedical will begin at 8p.m. PST and will be Military Appreciation Weekend - special jerseys, special guests, and of course two great hockey games. Tickets will go on sale Nov. 1 at 11a.m.