Matt Arnold stood tall in the Duluth net Tuesday night, stopping 46 of 49 shots, including several key saves to hedge a third period Ironhead rally, to get the 4-3 win and the squads first franchise victory.

Cody Stettin kept a hot streak alive, assisting on the power play to help the Clydes break the ice in the first frame and scoring what turned out to be the game winner late in the second. Duluth also got goals from Ben Michaud, Jon Ringstad, and Ryan Tront.

On the losing side, Casey Skolnik led the way, getting the first goal of the game for an early Range lead and assisting Saylor Preston to start the attempted comeback. Christopher Andre notched the remaining goal for the visitors, who saw backstop Chris Stokke take the loss, giving up four on 37 shots.

The series now shifts to Chisholm Wednesday night at 7:00 pm. The Ironheads' backs are against the wall as Duluth can close out them out with a victory and secure their first playoff series win.

A night after winning their first-ever Superior International Junior Hockey League postseason game, the Duluth Clydesdales to it a step further Wednesday capturing their inaugural playoff series after they defeated the Iron Range Ironheads 7-3 at Chisholm Sports Arena.

Ryan Tront paced the Duluth attack by tallying twice and adding an assist while Cody Stettin and Matt Morsette both notched a goal and a helper apiece. Mark Williams, Reed Armstrong and Dillon Mershon supplied singles for the Clydes and Jason Dzurik turned aside 36 of 39 shots he saw to record the win in net. Casey Skolnik, Karl Poss and Dario Torres countered for the Ironheads whose first season in the SIJHL comes to an end. Chris Stokke was tested 41 times in the setback with the final two goals coming into an empty net.

The victory gives Duluth a two-game sweep in the best-of-three Survivor Series as they now advance to league quarterfinal play vs. the No. 3 seed Thunder Bay North Stars.

That best-of-seven affair gets underway Friday evening in the Lakehead with the opening face-off set for 7:30 p.m. EST at the Fort William Gardens.

Trailing by two entering the third period, the North Stars roared back with three unanswered tallies to pull out the victory in game 1 of their best-of-seven series with the Clydesdales.

Duluth opened the scoring a couple minutes into the contest as Reed Armstrong was sent in alone, splitting the Thunder Bay defence, before going high on Marc Nother to give the visitors the early lead.

Quinn Rempel tied it at 4:52 before Cody Stettin pounced on a giveaway and slid the puck into an open side to put the Clydesdales back on top 32 seconds later.

After Ben Michaud scored on the power play at 14:20 to make it 3-1, Rempel’s second of the stanza brought the home side back to within one with a man advantage marker of his own neatly deflecting a Tyler Osborne shot from the point in front of Duluth starter Jason Dzurik.

The lone effort of the middle session came courtesy of Ryan Tront as the Clydesdales’ forward scored his fourth goal of the postseason 12 minutes into the period.

Thunder Bay struck twice early in the third on tallies from Devin Fullum and Dylan Mascarin 43 seconds apart to level the proceedings setting the stage for Mascarin to tuck in the game-winner with 7:24 to go as he deked past a sprawled Dzurik and tapped in the decider.

Duluth pulled their goaltender in the late stages as they pressed for the equalizer but a key left pad save by Nother and a last-second shot block by Mitchell Fox sealed the come from behind win. The North Stars held the shots on goal margin 36-24.

For a second straight night Thunder Bay rallied from a two-goal deficit to knock off visiting Duluth.

After Dillon Mershon put the Clydesdales on top, Cary Brown tied things up for the Stars in the first period.

With the opening frame winding down, Duluth used some nice passing to retake the lead scoring with just three seconds left in the session./Mershon and Matt Kaarela traded tallies in the middle stanza to make it 3-2 Clydes after two.

In the third Thunder Bay got a pair of goals from Dylan Mascarin and an unassisted effort from Quinn Rempel to take a 2-0 series lead. Marc Nother made 27 saves to record the victory while Matt Arnold faced 23 attempts in the loss.