Ice Raiders' Playoff Push Ended by Mountaineers

By Phillip Goodman

March 24, 2025

The McCall Mountaineers swept the Reno Ice Raiders in the semifinal round of the Mountain Hockey League playoffs with a 3-2 shootout win on Friday and a 5-1 Saturday victory to end Reno's '24-'25 season. TNT Yard Service presented the weekend series featuring the Ice Raiders in throwback jerseys honoring the Reno Aces, Reno's first ever Senior-A hockey program established in 1968. More about the Aces is at the end of this article.

Justin Sand for Reno and Chris Komma, a former teammate of Zeph Fagergren at the Univ. of Utah, for McCall put on goaltending shows both nights for the wall-to-wall fans at the The Jennifer M. O’Neal Community Ice Arena.

"McCall is a great hockey team," said Ice Raiders' Head Coach Tim Tookey. "Our guys played hard and gave it everything they had. I am so proud of all of them.

Early in Friday's action, Brian Watters was checked off the puck but defenseman Camden Gallagher had pinched in on the play. Sand was unable to track the awkward handoff through the bodies and Gallagher's wrister put McCall up 1-0.

Four minutes later, Bobby Watson started a 2-on-1 rush with Julian Herrera. Watson threaded a pass under the Mountaineer and Herrera one-timed the puck over Komma's pad to tie the score at 1-1. Watson's pass was the Goettl Air Assist of the Weekend plus Alex Gunnoe earned a helper.

The second period was mostly a stalemate until Reno earned their first Brewer's Cabinet Power Play when Alex Gunnoe was chopped down by Ian Zeleski in the attacking zone.

With 20 seconds left in the period, Jake Minton roofed a backhander giving Reno the 2-1 lead going into the intermission. Johnny Garrity and Phillip Buque had the assists.

Early in the third, Reno had another chance to extend their lead on the Brewer's Cabinet Power Plays when Ellis O'Dowd was boarded by Watters but they could not convert.

Eight minutes in, perennial troublemaker Nolan Stanley goaded Johnny Garrity into an unsportsmanlike penalty setting up Jacob May's power play goal to tie the game 2-2.

Moments later, Drew Punnett kneed Nathan Hogge but McCall killed Reno's advantage again. The game remained tied forcing overtime.

In the extra session, Makhai Sparks crosschecked Andrew Peterson but the Ice Raiders could not get a shot on the power play. As that penalty was expiring, Reno made a premature change and the penalty for too many on the ice gave McCall an advantage with just over two minutes to play. Reno killed that advantage and in the final minute both goalies and defensemen saved the game for their squads in a wild finish setting up the shootout.

In the shootout, Hunter Sine rang a wrister off the post and Minton scored for Reno, but McCall's Jackson Howell and Jacob May beat Sand for the 2-1 shootout win and 3-2 final favoring the visitors.

Reno outshot McCall 46-43 and had a slight edge on the faceoffs, 38-30. Reno was 1-for-2 on Peterson Wealth Management Penalty Kills and 1-for-4 on Brewer's Cabinet Power Plays.

McCall took the wind from Reno's sails three minutes into Saturday's match with a breakaway goal. The entire Reno bench saw Austin Kuzara was offside by inches before the headman pass but the linesman behind the action ruled the play onside.

The Mountaineers poured in two more goals in a two-minute span plus an early second period tally for a 4-0 lead.

With under eight minutes left in the second, Matt Robinson netted the only goal of the night assisted by Charlie Montgomery and Weston Nash.

McCall added one more goal before all the extra unpleasantries boiled over in the final four minutes of the season. Three scraps broke out for 30 minutes of combined fighting majors setting the tone for next season's meetup.

McCall outshot Reno 37-34 but Reno won 67 percent of the faceoffs (42-21). Reno was 4-for-4 on Peterson Wealth Management Penalty Kills and 0-for-2 on Brewer's Cabinet Power Plays.

Reno finished the '24-'25 campaign 18-6-4 overall and 13-3-2 at home. Every game this season at The Jennifer M. O’Neal Community Ice Arena was packed to capacity.

"It was a fun season overall but not the best ending," said Ice Raiders' Captain Andrew Peterson. "We’ve built something special here in Reno and we need to regroup over the summer to come out stronger next year."

"We had a wonderful season," Tookey concurred. "We got our first win against Santa Rosa which was a highlight. Also, I would like to thank everyone involved with the Ice Raiders organization. Special thanks to the fans who make it such a fantastic experience for all of us."

There are dozens of volunteers, family, and friends behind the curtain that make an Ice Raiders game happen and to all of you - THANK YOU. And to all the fans that sang along, counted off goals, banged on the glass, and roared with every hit and goal, THANK YOU for making Reno Ice the best barn ever in Senior A hockey. The next season starts today.

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Tickets are on sale now for Reno's Fourth Annual Goon Squad Cup presented by Advanced Asphalt and The Jennifer M. O’Neal Community Ice Arena. Canada leads the series 2-1. Tickets for game one on Friday are on sale here. Game two on Saturday will cap off the second annual Hockey Day in Reno, which will include an all-day kids' tournament. A ticket for each game is only $10 and goes toward the worthy cause of the Nico Goon Scholar Award

Nico Goon graduated from Bishop Manogue and was a first-year student majoring in civil engineering at Cal Poly. Nico tragically passed away on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024.

The Nico Goon Scholar Award was established to help the young men and women of the Northern Nevada area continue to achieve their dreams and contribute to humankind. This scholarship will carry forward his legacy by supporting local students who embody Nico’s spirit and “Live Like Nico” as they pursue their dreams.

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The Ice Raiders wore retro jerseys honoring the Reno Aces, Reno's first ever Senior-A hockey club from 1968. The six-team Western Hockey League began taking applications for new franchises in May 1967 and Fresno threw their hat in the ring. Reno was not mentioned as a potential site. While Fresno did not earn the league entry then, there was enough interest to form a semi-pro team and enough talent with many of the WHL's San Francisco Seals players near Fresno.

What is surprisingly unclear is the relationship between Fresno's Selland Arena, Reno's Centennial Coliseum, Jim Freeman and Paul Winter in Fresno, and Reno's Allen Dunn. At the time, Allen Dunn was a Reno television executive after having been on the alternate list for the 1960 U.S. Olympic Hockey team and a player for the Squaw Valley Chiefs. In the fall of 1968, the Reno Aces and the Fresno Aces formed as the same semi-pro hockey club with the same roster and same opponents.

Dunn said bringing semi-professional hockey to Reno was first considered in 1964. He said when he originally proposed hockey for Reno he was told, "You must have a hole in your head." People told him Renoites didn't know anything about hockey and would not support it. This editorial (author unknown) from the Nevada State Journal on October 1, 1968 seemed far more optimistic.

"Hockey has been called the greatest spectator sport in the world and we think Reno is ready for its own team," Dunn told the Reno Evening Gazette on Nov. 9 1968.

Eddie Panagabko was appointed as the first Aces Captain in 1968. Panagabko bounced around leagues between 1951 and 1967, highlighted by 28 games with the Boston Bruins (0G, 3A), multiple seasons with the AHL' Hershey Bears, Providence Reds, and captain of the WHL's San Diego Gulls. Panagabko won championships with his '57-58 AHL Bears and back to back WHL Championships with the San Francisco Seals in '63 and '64.

The first roster consisted of mixed Canadians and Americans with a couple of international stars sprinkled in: Tom Green (Toronto), Willie Whalen (Swedish Nationals), Murray Robertson (Toronto), Bill Breault (Detroit), Mike Sullivan (San Francisco), Tom Morse (Minn.), Lennie Holmes (Minn.), Bob Mills (Boston), Red McDougal (British Columbia), Bob Keltie (Boston), Mike Roberts, (Swiss National Team), Don Kerwin (Toronto), Bob Merritt (Ontario), Ray Kotow (Calgary), Jerry Fox (N. Dakota), Gerry Rowse (Winnipeg), Bruce McClubbery (Chicago), and Dennis Froehler (Edmonton). Added later in the season were veteran pros Duke Edmundson, Ken Watson, and Bud McKinnon. Head coach was Stu Beaulne, a standout for the Montreal Royals and former coach of the Belgium Olympic team. The NSJ reported that this group of semi-pros were also commercial airline pilots, teachers, lawyers, engineers, salesmen, and servicemen.

Why the name Aces? Gerry Rowse told the Fresno Bee that when the squad played in San Francisco in the years prior to playing in Reno and Fresno, the players had no backers and had to pay their own way. "We were looking for the shortest name we could think of," said Rowse, "because It costs so much for each letter when the name is sewed on the jerseys, so the fewer the letters, the less the cost, and 'Aces' was the cheapest name we could come up with. The original jerseys were green and white. Entering the 1970 season, the Aces adopted the black and gold sweaters.

Before the Aces made their debut in Reno, their season began in Fresno. The Aces defeated the Bakersfield Flyers by an 8-7 score on Fri. Nov. 10 thanks to Bob Mill's 50-foot slapshot at the buzzer. Approximately 1,000 fans attended the first Fresno game. The Spokane Eagles defeated the Aces 8-4 in Saturday's contest.

The first game in Reno almost did not happen. The 3p.m. Sunday matinee on Nov. 10, 1968 was delayed 'indefinitely' when the Eagles' plane was held up in San Francisco due to fog.

Dunn stalled by announcing the "complication" to the fans and "ate up some time with player introductions and demonstrations of various hockey techniques." The Aces fell to the Eagles, 5-1, and Dunn still called the opener and subsequent post-game party at the Elks Club a giant success. The blurb in the Fresno Bee could be the best foreshadowing of the Aces future and the "proposed intermediate league next year," referring to what would eventually become the Cal-Neva League.