Soo, Topeka host NAHL Midwest Openers

The annual Showcase tournament in Blaine, MN is generally considered as the opening of the North American Hockey League season, but each year a few teams manage to get a few games under their bests before the four games in four days extravaganza.

This season, four different cities regular season matches and two of those involved Midwest teams.

The Soo Eagles split a pair with the visiting Janesville Jets while the Topeka Roadrunners, the lone Midwest rep in the Southern Division, played rough hosts, taking a  Friday/Sunday sweep on home ice against the visiting Corpus Christi IceRays.

Sept. 12

Janesville 2 Soo 3 

The Visiting Jets carried a 1-0 lead out of the first and 2-1 into the third at Pullar Stadium but Raymond Brice tied it up just 24 seconds into the third and Bruno Birzitis scored his second with 5:55 to go to lift the Eagles into the lead for the first and only time in the contest.  Sean Keating preserved the win stopping 28 of 30 shots faced in the Eagles’ goal.

Drew Callin notched both Jets goals and Matt Jurusik stopped 29 of the 32 shots he faced in goal.

Corpus Christi 3 Topeka 4 (so)

Wes Michaud’s goal just 17 seconds from the final buzzer completed a nice regulation time comeback for the IceRays who trailed 3-1 early in the final frame.

But Daniel Brickley stepped up as the hero, burying his shot in the seventh round to give the host Roadrunners an opening night win in front of almost 1,500 fans at the Kansas Expo Center. Brickley’s goal gave the home side an overall edge of 3-2 in the shootout.

Jasen Fernsler and Daniel Rzavsky had a goal and assist for the Roadrunners with the other goal scored by Sam Rennaker. Drew Vogler handled 29 of 32 shots in goal for Topeka and the other shootout markers came from Sly Sutter and Fernsler.

Michaud’s goal came with goaltender Andrew Lindgren (24/27) sitting on the bench and he also added an assist, matching Tanner Lomsnes who also added a tally in the shootout session.

Travis Howe collected the other IceRay goal and Connor Bucsis had two assists , Anthony Cortese scoring the other shootout marker.

Sept. 13

Janesville 4 Soo 3 

The Jets avenged its defeat 24 hours later at Pullar Stadium with Drew Callin adding another goal and assist in the contest. Brandon Schultz led the way this time though with two goals and Kyle Patava also collected a goal and assist.

Matt Jurusik stopped 28 of 31 to even his own record at 1-1 in goal.

Trevor Cope was in on all three Eagles goals, scoring two and collecting an assist on the other scored by Sandis Zolmanis who also picked up an assist. Bruno Birzitis set up two and Sean Keating turned aside 30 of 34 shots in goal for the Eagles.

Sept. 14

Corpus Christi 2 Topeka 5

The Roadrunners trailed 2-1 early in the second period, but scored the next four to pull out a sweep in its first home set at the Kansas Expo Center.

Willie Brown scored once and added two assists while Yu Hikosaka set up three. Shawn Brennan and Ryan Polin both added a goal and a helper with other goals for Sly Sutter and Daniel Rzavsky. Matej Tomek picked up the win in goal stopping 25 of 27 shots he faced.

Wes Michaud scored one goal and assisted on the other, scored by Nic Laburn. Luke Pickar turned in a solid effort between the pipes, handling 40 of 45 shots.

Following the Sunday game, the Roadrunners, IceRays and members of the other 22 NAHL teams made final preparations for the annual Showcase tournament that started at the Schwan Super Rink three days later.

 

Add a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.