Mintun’s first goal for Cherokee a biggie

Matt Mintun couldn’t have picked a better time to score his first goal as a junior.

Mintun, a 16-year-old native of Ottawa Hills, OH made his junior debut on Saturday (Sept. 9, 2017) and lifted his Toledo Cherokee to a 4-3 NA3HL win with his goal scored 3:04 into the overtime period against the Dayton Falcons at South Metro Ice Sports in Dayton.

The Cherokee scored first, but trailed 2-1 and 3-2 in a game that saw both teams score once in each period leading to the extra session.

Bauer Cooper, 17, from Grand Ledge, MI and Spencer Sandberg, 17, from Fort Wayne, IN both picked up a goal and assist in the game – both also making their respective junior hockey debuts. E.J. Gilbert, 19, from Dexter, MI collected two assists and the other Toledo goal came from Anthony Weinrich, 17, from Toledo.

AJ Papcunik, 20, from Pennsylvania; Brandon Holt, 18, from Madison Heights, MI and Brody Nielsen, 18, from Newport, MI each scored for the Falcons.

Ricardo Gonzalez, 20, from Davidson, MI stopped 23 of 26 to pick up the win in goal for the Cherokee while Nick Vanwinkle, 19, from Battle Creek, MI made 49 saves in goal for the Falcons.

The same two teams are scheduled to meet again Sunday (Sept. 10) at the same arena.

Following are four other NA3HL games from Saturday, involving Midwest-based teams.

St. Louis Jr. Blues 2 at Peoria Mustangs 5

The Jr. Blues and Mustangs renewed their rivalry with a pair of opening weekend tilts at the Owens Center in Peoria.

Home ice paid off in the opener as five different goal scorers stepped up to help the Mustangs cause as the hosts carried a 2-1 lead out of the opening period, added an unanswered middle period marker and then added another 2-1 margin down the stretch.

Braden Stewart, 19, from Seat Peoria, IL collected a goal and assist for the winners with other goals added by: Jack Power Wayvon, 20, from Dunlap, IL; Brady Jackson, 17, from Davenport, IA; Austin Kiel from Bloomington, IL and Jack Radley, 18, from California.

Jake Kram, 17 and Jack Hazelton, 15, both from St. Louis counted the Jr. Blues’ goals.

Dakota Meyer, 17, from Alpena, IL stopped 35 of 37 shots to collect the win in goal while Hunter Smith, 19, from Texas made 15 saves for the Blues.

The same two teams were set to square off again on Sunday.

Wooster Oilers 0 at Southern Tier Express 3

Ryan Pascarella stopped every one of the 38 shots he faced at the Jamestown Savings Bank Arena to lead the Express to a shutout win against the Wooster Oilers.

Stuart Pearson, 18, from New Richmond, WI scored the lone goal of the first period which stood up as the game winner and the other two came in the second, both off the stick of Harry Payne, 18, from Macomb, MI.

Michael Hubbard, 19, from Rochester Hills, MI turned aside 39 shots in goal for the Oilers.

This was the lone game for both teams on the weekend. The Oilers will play its home opener on Friday (Sept. 15) at the Alice Noble Ice Arena in Wooster against the 0-2 Lansing Wolves.

Rochester Ice Hawks 1 at La Crosse Freeze 8

The visiting Ice Hawks led early in this one as Michael Smits, 19, from River Falls, WI hit for his team’s only goal of the game at the 6:29 mark at the Green Island Ice Arena in La Crosse.

The lead lasted just 22 seconds before Brock Zukowski, 18, from Black River Falls, WI tied the score. Clayton Lackey, 18, from Arizona put the Freeze in front to stay late in the opening period.

The host squad went on to pile on four more in the middle period and another three down the stretch for an easy win.

Thomas Magnavite, 18, from Chicago scored twice for the Freeze while Brandon Ratzloff, from Rochester, MN picked up a goal and two assists. Lackey; Marcus Tilmon, 18, from Rockford, IL and Matthew Francois added a goal and assist apiece and the other goal came from Benjamin Beversdorf, 18, from West Bend, WI.

William Graves, 20, from Minneapolis, MN stopped 17 of 18 shots to grab the win in goal for the Freeze. Luke Murphy, 17, from Sandstone, MN and Tait Carlson, 20, from Blaine, MN split the work in goal for the Ice Hawks, combining on a 40 save effort.

This was a one-off weekend for both teams. The Freeze will make the trip to Peoria for a cross division pair while the Ice Hawks are off until the following weekend when it plays a home and home set with the Breezy Point North Stars.

Metro Jets 3 at Lansing 1

After a lopsided loss on home ice, the Lansing Wolves turned in a better effort at Fraser Hockeyland Saturday but still ended up coming up short 3-1 against the unbeatable Metro Jets.

Teams were even after a period and Metro pulled away with single goals in both the middle and final frames.

Jacob Redman, 19, from Marshall, MI counted the lone Wolves’ tally while Griffin Sawyer, 19, from Trenton, MI; Robby Flannery, 20, from Lathrop Village, MI and Aaron Shahin, 20, from Ortonville, MI scored for the Jets.

Brian Tallieu, 19, from Davison, MI picked up his second win of the young season with a 16-save effort while Sean Finstrom, 18, from Wixom, MI kicked out 37 for the Wolves.

The Jets will play host to the Dayton Falcons next weekend while the Wolves look to hit the win column at Wooster.