Stingers Split Veteran's Appreciation Series as Goalie Slater Steals the Show

Phillip Goodman
Nov 10
4 min read

Updated: Nov 12

By Phillip Goodman

Nov. 11, 2025

After taking a 6-1 drubbing on Friday night, the Bozeman Stingers bounced back behind Chris Slater's incredible performance in net to take a 3-2 win from the Ice Raiders and a weekend split. The Ice Raiders offense on Friday was firing on all cylinders but then Slater stepped up his game stopping 43 of 45 shots to steal Saturday’s win.

Both games presented by Cure Biomedical at Jennifer M. O’Neal Community Ice Arena were packed to capacity as fans lined up for a chance to bid on special military jerseys to benefit the Northern Nevada Veterans Alliance (NNVA). Each Ice Raiders player had a special 'rank' marking on their jersey indicating their "rank" / captaincy with the team. Ice Raiders fans generously opened their hearts and wallets to support the local organization that aims to empower veterans and their families while honoring their service and sacrifices.

Saturday's event also featured a Battle of Nevada exhibition game pitting Las Vegas based veterans against Reno Veterans plus special ceremonial puck dropper Frannie, a five-month-old black Lab in training with Liberty Dogs. Liberty Dogs is a flagship initiative of the Dave & Cheryl Duffield Foundation, headquartered right here in Reno and opening in Summer 2026. Their vision brings hope, healing, and dignity to Veterans through the life-changing partnership of a Service Dog.

The Ice Raiders got two goals twelve seconds apart seven minutes into Friday's action. Matt Pederson scored his first goal as an Ice Raider after he banked the puck through the legs of Slater on a shot from below the goal line. On the following faceoff win and rush, Alex Gunnoe backhanded a perfect pass to Zeph Fagergren crashing the slot and the Mighty Mullet buried a one timer over Slater's leg pad.

The game quickly came to a boil after Ice Raider Adam Barba received a couple of questionable hits. Roger Hutchinson dropped the gloves with Hunter Sirois while Bobby Watson and Stinger Ben Henne also got minors in the melee.

Five minutes later, Pederson found Jake Minton in the slot and Minty Fresh chipped a shot through a screen and over the shoulder of Slater for the 3-0 lead. Henne answered only eight seconds later and it would be the only goal Justin Sand would allow all night.

The second period was just as heated as the first. The Ice Raiders took 15 minutes in penalties but still kept Bozeman off the scoreboard. Much like in the Park city series, the Ice Raiders had their power-play chances too but took penalties in the offensive zone to negate the time.

With 11 minutes to go in the second period, Bobby Watson received a gift of a turnover in the slot and fired over the leg pad of Slater to extend Reno's lead to 4-1 which held until the end of 40 minutes. Early in the third, Minton scored his second of the night and Bobby Watson capped the evening with a power play goal with seven minutes left.

Justin Sand stopped 29 of 30 shots, including seven on the Peterson Wealth Management Penalty Kills to keep Bozeman 0-for-6 on their advantage. Reno was only 1-for-5 on the Brewer's Cabinet Power Play although not all the advantages lasted the full two minutes because of penalties taken to cancel their time.

Bozeman was stronger in the dots taking 39 of the game's 70 faceoffs, although Reno did a better job of controlling the third period play by outdueling Bozeman 17-12 in that last frame.

Reno's Saturday night started with a giant blow to the squad only 90 seconds in. Defenseman Alex Gunnoe was checked violently from behind into the boards by Luke Bing. Gunnoe left the bench with an upper body injury and was unable to return to the game. Bing was assessed a minor on the play but Reno was unable to score.

Slater, who was playing on borrowed skates because he left his in Montana, sharpened his game on Saturday and got more help from the defense and offense in front of him.

Although Bozeman outshot Reno 12-10 in the first, Jake Minton put Reno on the board first with a slick puck handling move that left Slater out to dry for the 1-0 lead late in the opener.

After that, Bozeman tallied three unanswered goals by Reed Kaiser on the power play and even strength goals by Ben Henne and Zack Stoddart. Justis Gyori made back to back Brain Bean saves of the game on a Bozeman breakaway and power play to keep Reno within striking distance.

Matt Pederson's Brewer's Cabinet Power Play goal with eight minutes left brought Reno as close as 3-2 but Slater stopped Reno's final eight shots on net to seal Bozeman's win. Slater's finest save came off a rocket of a one-timer by Johnny Garrity that was targeted for the upper corner. Somehow Slater flashed the glove to steal Garrity's game-tying goal at 4:25 of the third.

Reno was 1-for-7 on Brewer's Cabinet Power Plays and a perfect 4-for-4 Peterson Wealth Management Penalty Kills. Justis Gyori stopped 29 of 31 and played one of his finest games in Reno despite being straddled with the loss.

"We tried a new power play this weekend but didn’t execute the way we needed to versus how they defended," said Captain Andrew Peterson. "We had some good chances on Saturday and had some really good shots. It's just the way it goes sometimes with momentum in a second game."