Ice Hawks open state tourney with win

The Havre Ice Hawk high school hockey team started off the state high school tournament with a dominant 5-1 win over the Billings Bulls Thursday night at the Havre Ice Dome.

Levi Briese picked up a hat trick while Brett Patrick and Jon Johnstone both added goals in the win.

Havre will face Butte today at 6 p.m. and Bozeman on Saturday at 4 p.m. in first round action.

The Ice Hawks jumped to an early lead as Garrett Drake found Patrick open in front of the net for a quick score at the 15:52 mark of the first period.

Briese scored his first goal three minutes later as Johnstone made a nice pass through traffic to find Briese open on the left side of the goal.

Johnstone added an unassisted breakaway goal of his own at the 9:30 mark of the second period to give Havre a 3-0 lead.

Billings scored its lone goal later in the second period.

But Briese answered with seven seconds remaining in the second period. He notched his hat trick and put the game out of reach with his third goal with 11:14 remaining in the third period.