Jets enjoying role of NAHL spoiler

The lone game in North American Hockey League play tonight will see the first place Janesville Jets in La Crosse to play the Coulee Region Chill who could use the two points to pad its slim edge over Springfield for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Central Division.

Also, the NA3HL’s Silver Cup Championship tournament rolls into its second day with a couple of Midwest based teams needing to jump into the win column.

NAHL

Janesville at Coulee

After denying the Springfield team a chance to inch closer to the Coulee Region Chill earlier this week, the Janesville Jets will try to deny the Chill from moving further ahead with another midweek road contest.

The Chill have six games remaining on its schedule – four against the Jr. Blues and the other two both against the Jets who have already clinched the division title.

For the Jets, one of the few league teams with virtually nothing at stake when it takes the ice in its own final half dozen games, the biggest battle might be against complacency. The team actually dropped its previous three before grabbing the win in Springfield on Tuesday.

The Jets and Chill have squared off in an all-Wisconsin battle 10 times, the Jets winning six of those so far. The most recent battle came last Thursday night as the Chill captured a 1-0 win in Janesville thanks to a 40-save shutout effort from Joe Marcoullier, a ’97 from New Brighton, MN and a goal off the stick of Jacob Schmit-Svejstrup, a ’98 from Denmark.

The Jets will be back in La Crosse to wrap up the season series next Thursday.

Silver Cup Update

It was an even split among the four Midwest based teams in their NA3HL Silver Cup openers played on Wednesday.

The Metro Jets opened with a 3-0 shutout against the Granite City Lumberjacks 3-0 as Andrew Kormos, a ’97 from Milford, MI turned aside 31 Granite City shots while goals were supplied by Matthias Tellstrom, a ’96 from Sweden, Chas Distelrath, a ’96 from Hartland, MI and Hayden Winch, a ’97 from Plymouth, MI.

In the other Group A game, the St. Louis Jr. Blues collected a 4-2 win against the Atlanta Capitals, led by Joe Papa, a ’98 from St. Charles, MO who scored a pair, with others from Joe Nolan, a ’97 from Arlington Heights, IL and Ivan Galaguzov, a ’98 from Russia.

Caps’ goals came from Tristen Poliseno, a ’97 from California and Sascha Figi, a ’97 from Switzerland.

In the evening games, the defending Silver Cup champion North Iowa Bulls dropped its opener, 4-2 to the Yellowstone Quake.

Down early, the Bulls stormed back and held a 2-1 lead late in the second period with goals from Brandon Studioso, a 99 from Washington State and Connor Clemons, a ’98 from Savage, MN.

The Quake rallied back to tie the score before the end of the frame and then scored twice in the final frame to steal the win.

Tony Dahlberg, a ’96 from Lakeville, MN scored the first and final goals for the Quake with others for Curt Greenbush, a ’96 from St. Louis Park, MN and Pablo Pantoja, a ’96 from Spain.

The other opening night game was an all east-coast battle, Binghamton Jr. Senators thrashing the Long Beach Sharks by a score of 8-1.

Second day games have already kicked off at Romeoville, IL as the Metro Jets are facing the Capitals and the Granite City Lumberjacks are squaring off with the St. Louis Jr. Blues. Later tonight, the Bulls will faceoff against the Jr. Sens while Long Beach takes on the Quake.