Mustangs bounce back for NA3HL win

After falling for the first time the previous day at home to the St. Louis Jr. Blues, the Peoria Mustangs stormed back with a 7-2 win at the Owens Recreation Center on Sunday (Sept. 20).

Other weekend wrap up games saw the Cincinnati Thunder wrapping up a hometown sweep of the visiting Toledo Cherokee 5-3 and the La Crosse Freeze also earned a home sweep with its 6-1 win against the Chicago Bulldogs.

Jr. Blues 2 at Mustangs 7

The Mustangs scored a pair of unanswered first period goals only to have the Blues pull even in the second, but Austin Wisely, 19, from Chilicothe, IL scored his second of the contest with 21 seconds to go in the middle period and put the Stangs in front to stay.

Jason Hoehn, scored early in the final period to stretch the lead and added another, from Wisely with 2:09 to play to clinch the win and the Mustangs added two more before the final buzzer as well.

Levi Armstrong, 20, from Champaign, IL collected three assists in the game and other Mustang goals came from: Andrej Buchko, 18, from Peoria; Chance Homerin, 19, from Pekin, IL and Dane Federighi, 18, from Barrington Hills, IL. Nic Piech, 19, from Des Plaines, IL made 20 saves to pick up the win in goal.

Zach Mitchell, 18, from Chicago, IL and Alex Klaesner, 20, from St. Charles, MO scored the Jr. Blues goals and Ian Dvorak, 20, from Rochester Hills, MI made 27 saves in goal.

Both teams will be back in action on Friday (Sept. 25) as the Mutangs travel to Oregon, WI to take on the host Wisconsin Whalers and the Jr. Blues make the trek to Nashville to play the Jr. Predators.

Bulldogs 1 at Freeze 6

The Bulldogs looked to avoid the sweep as Trevor Foley, 19, from Plainfield scored in the opening minute of the game at Green Island Ice Arena, but that was the only goal the Chicago squad would take away from La Crosse on this day.

The host Freeze owned a 3-1 lead by the end of the opening period, adding another in the middle frame and two more down the stretch.

Daniel Toycen, 19, from Chippewa Falls, WI paced the offense with a goal and two assists while Justin Edwards, 20, from Mosinee; Alexander Rickoff, 20, from Winona, MN and Jared Bromberg, 20, from Rochester, MN each added two assists and Dylan Goggin, 18, from Red Wing, MN collected a goal and assist.

Other Freeze goals came from JP Eykyn, 18, from Waseca, MN; Taylor Trapp, 19, from West Salem, WI; Case Moioffer, 17, from Somerset, WI and Ben Henderson, 19, from North Branch, MN.

Garret Matz, 19, from Albert Lea made 22 saves to earn the win in goal for the Freeze and Jimmy Smith, 19, from Texas was kept busy in Bulldogs goal, making 57 stops.

The Freeze will remain on home ice to play the Alexandria Blizzard on Friday (Sept. 25) while the Bulldogs will play host to the North Iowa Bulls.

Cherokee 3 at Thunder 5

This one was even all of the way until the final minutes, both teams scoring twice in the opening period and entering the final period with the 2-2 draw still in effect at the

Justin Bioni, 18, from Pennsylvia put the host Thunder in front 6:48 into the third but teams were even again when Ethan Resetar, 18, from Plymouth, MI scored for the Cherokee with 5:21 to play.

Rory Callihan, 17, from Liberty Twp. OH put the home team in front to stay with 2:25 to play and Cobin Sanborn, 19, from West Virginia salted it away with his empty netter 77 seconds from the finish.

Brady Kiplinger, 18 from Springboro, OH and Albert Janele, 18, from Czech Republic had the first period goals for the Thunder, Trystin Snider, 18, from Oregon, OH and Tyler Zalecki, 20, from Northwood, OH responding for the Cherokee.

Daniel Dolliver, 19, from Virginia stopped 31 shots to nail down the win for the Thunder and Glen Bates, 20, from Ida, MI stopped 21 in goal for the Cherokee.

The Thunder will hit the road Friday (Sept. 25) to play at Evansville against the Thunderbolts and the Cherokee will visit West Michigan Wolves.