Peck’s first keys Jr. Blues win

Alex Peck, 20, couldn’t have picked a better time to fire his first of the season as his goal scored just past the halfway mark of the final period snapped a 4-4 deadlock and lifted the Springfield Jr. Blues to a 5-4 win against Midwest Division rival Janesville Jets in North American Hockey League play Friday (Oct. 28) at the Nelson Center.

In other league play involving Midwest based teams on Friday: the Minnesota Magicians went to overtime to clinch a 2-1 win over the visiting Kenai River Brown Bears at Richfield Ice Arena; the Coulee Region Chill earned a 5-1 win at the Green Island Ice Arena against the visiting Fairbanks Ice Dogs; Minot Minotauros downed the host Austin Bruins 7-3 at Riverside Arena; the Brookings Blizzard earned a 2-0 win at the Larson Ice Center against visiting Minnesota Wilderness and the Bismarck Bobcats fell 5-2 on the road against the Aberdeen Wings at the Odde Ice Center.

Jets 4 at Jr. Blues 5

The Blues grabbed a one-goal lead five times in this game with the Jets responding to the first four. Teams were even at 1-1 after a period and the Blues owned a 4-3 cushion heading to the third, Kip Hoffman, 19, from Huntley, evening it up at 4-4 with his goal 3:17 into the third and setting the stage for Peck’s game winner.

Brandon Puricelli, 18, from Ellisville MO scored twice for the Blues with others for Luke Picek, 20, from La Grange Park, IL and Matt Cassidy, 17, from New Jersey. Evan Fear, 17, from Winnetka, IL picked up the win in goal with a 25-save effort for the Jr. Blues.

Jakov Novak, 18, from Ontario; Chris Dodero, 20, from Bloomingdale, IL and Michael Maloney, 18, from McHenry, IL fired the other Jets’ goals while the goaltending was split between Jacob Barczewski, 17, from O’Fallon, MO (21:17 8/9) and Derek Schaedig, 18, from Chelsea, MI (37:23 17/21).

Magicians 2 Brown Bears 1 (ot)

Nikita Kozyrev, 18, from Estonia brought this one to a sudden end with his goal 58 seconds into the overtime period as the host Magicians held off a solid challenge from the Brown Bears who collected its second point of the season and first since Sept. 22 at the league showcase tournament with the overtime defeat.

John Siebenaler, 19, from Farmingron, MN scored the other Magicians’ goal 2:25 into the second period and Ethan Stewart, 19, from Rockford, IL responded for the Bears in the final minute of the same period.

Danil Gerasimov, 20, from Russia picked up the win, stopping 13 shots in goal for the Magicians and Robbie Goor, 20, from Anoka, MN turned aside 29 in goal for the Brown Bears.

Ice Dogs 1 at Chill 5

Kevin Dineen, 20, from Fairbault, MN scored a pair to lead the Chill to a home win against Midwest Division rival and defending Robertson Cup champion Fairbanks.

Robert Blueger, 18, from Latvia scored the lone goal for the Ice Dogs 4:20 into the opening period with Chill goals on either side of it scored by Dineen and Trenton Bliss, 18, from Appleton, WI.

Joey Sofo, 20, from Sylviania, OH and Dineen fired second period goals to pad the Chill margin and Isaac Thiessen, 20, from Monroe, MI added one more into an empty Fairbanks goal in the game’s final minute.

Todd Scott turned aside all but one of the 31 shots he faced in goal for the Chill and the Ice Dogs sent both Josh Sarlo, 19, from New Jersey (30:45 1/14) and CJ Boothe, 18, from Florida (26:08 11/11)

Minotauros 7 at Bruins 3

The Minotauros carried a 2-0 cushion into the second period at Austin but exploded for four more in the first half of the middle period to all but put this one away.

The Bruins scored two in 2:51 to cut into the margin a bit, but a late middle period marker had the guests up 7-2 with 20 minutes to play.

Michael Talbot, 19, from Anoka, MN and Jack Murphy, 20, from Prior Lake, MN scored two each for the Minot crew with others added by Zack Bross, 2o, from Weldon Spring, MO; Tyler Jeanson, 19, from Manitoba and Alex Adams, 19, from Grand Rapids, MN. Lucas Murray, 20, from Virginia, MN  stopped 32 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Minotauros.

Logan Haskins, 19, from Rochester, MN; Justin Misiak, 20, from St. Clair Shores, MI and Travis Kothenbeutel, 19, from Sauk Rapids, MN scored for the Bruins with the goaltending chores split between Jake Kucharski, 17, from Pennsvlvania (38:22 17/20) and Alex Schilling, 19, from Medina, MN (21:38 2/6).

Wilderness 0 at Blizzard 2

Josh Boyko, 19, from Ontario turned in a 36-save shutout to nail down the win for the Blizzard in goal while Chase Brand, 17, from Nevis, MN and Paul Cotter, 17, from Canton, MI scored the goals, Brand in the second period and Cotter into an empty Wilderness goal with 95 seconds to play.

Luke Kania, 20, from Chicago, IL stopped 27 of 28 shots in goal for the Wilderness.

Bobcats 2 at Wings 5

Three goals in the first 13 minutes of this contest stood up as the difference for the host Wings against the Bobcats.

The Bobcats pulled one back late in the period and both teams fired one in the middle period before the Wings clinched it with another five minutes into the third period.

Shawn Knowlton, 20, from New York, fired the first two for the Wings with Andy Carroll, 19, from Northfield, MN adding another first period marker. Carson Dimoff, 17, from Arizona and Tyler Bossert, 20, from Fargo, ND had the other Wings’ goals and Arttu Kulmala, 19, from Finland made 32 saves to pick up the win in goal.

Parker Mismash, 20, from Edina, MN and Matthew Berry, 19, from Naperville, IL had the Bobcat goals and the goaltending work was split between Will Ulrich, 20, from Birmingham, MI (28:26 13/17) and Camden Haugenoe, 19, from Williston, ND (31:34 17/18).

All six games games will feature rematches on Saturday night