Sports Editor

Home is where the heart is, and the Coyotes have been showing plenty of heart on the home ice. After a tough loss to Bismarck Friday, the Williston boys hockey team (6-4-3) bounced back to dump Jamestown 3-1 at the Agri-Sports Complex Saturday.

"Our defense played its best game of the year and we just continued some good play from Friday," said Williston coach Dustin Bratlien.

On Friday, The Coyotes (5-4-3) pushed the West's top team in Bismarck (10-1), but came up on the short end of a 6-3 contest. "I thought the game felt a lot closer than the score showed," he said.

Williston 3, Jamestown 1 Bratlien would have liked to have seen a few more points on the board, but it's understandable when the Coyotes peppered the Blue Jays with 62 shots on goal.

"We could have had a few more goals, but we didn't come to the net strong enough and lot of the pucks laid in the crease, it seemed like that one puck laid there for 12 seconds," said Bratlien.

The Coyotes out-skated Jamestown nearly the entire game. "We brought a lot of energy to the ice," said Bratlien.

Jordan Nelson broke the ice for Williston in the first period scoring on a feed from Jake Axtman early on for a 1-0 lead.

In the second period, Colby Rehak had another pretty one-timer as he was looking to put the puck on net as the Coyotes were coming out of a line change and he found the net for an unassisted effort.

Charlie Miller added a third goal on an assist from Sheldon Kihle to lead 3-0 in the third period.

A breakdown cost the Coyotes a shutout as the Blue Jays caught the Coyotes out of position and Erick Paiement got a point blank goal.

However, the Coyotes dominated a Jamestown power play and kept the puck out of their own end the rest of the way to preserve the lead.

McCade Evanson had another strong outing between the pipes for Williston with 18 saves. Tyler Lindberg had 59 saves for Jamestown and kept them in the game.

Jamestown 0 0 1 - 1

Williston 1 2 0 - 3

1st Period

1, Williston, Jordan Nelson (Jake Axtman) 11:23.

2nd Period

2, Williston, Colby Rehak (unassisted) 4:34.

3, Williston, Charlie Miller (Sheldon Kihle) 2:39.

3rd Period

4, Jamestown, Erick Paiement (Jacob Swanberg) 10:26.

Goalie saves: Jamestown - Tyler Lindberg 20-19-20 - 59. Williston - McCade Evanson 6-7-5 - 18.

Penalties: Jamestown - 3 minors. Williston - 2 minors.

Bismarck 6, Williston 3

Bismarck scored three unanswered goals to lead 3-0 midway through the second period.

Williston finally got on the board when Trever Sorenson scored with assists from Greg Kuhn and Colby Rehak. Jordan Nelson's unassisted effort trimmed the lead to 3-2 entering the third period.

Cote Dickerson had a great individual effort to add another unassisted goal for the Coyotes and tie the game with just under 12 minutes left.

However, Bismarck got a great shot from Andrew Seeburg, who wrister from the circle got by Williston goalie McCade Evanson for the go-ahead goal.

Bismarck added another insurance goal and an empty-netter with time running out.

Evanson had 28 saves, while Bismarck's Drew Eichele had 24 for the win.

Bismarck 1 2 3 - 6

Williston 0 2 1 - 3

1st Period

1, Bismarck, Cole Geis (Tyler Richter) 7:08.

2nd Period

2, Bismarck, Sean Sullivan (Jared LaBere) 15:39. 3, Bismarck, Grant Mindt (unassisted) 12:35. 4, Williston, Trever Sorenson (Greg Kuhn, Colby Rehak) 9:17. 5, Williston, Jordan Nelson (unassisted) 7:59.

3rd Period

6, Williston, Cote Dickerson (unassisted) 11:53. 7, Bismarck, Andrew Seeberg (unassisted) 9:53. 8, Bismarck, Richter (Patrick Anderson) 5:45. 9, Bismarck, Matt Fettig (unassisted) :09.

Goalie saves: Bismarck - Drew Eichele 4-9-11 - 24. Williston - McCade Evanson 10-4-14 - 28.

Penalties: Williston - 4 minors. Bismarck - 2 minors.