Tellstrom lifts Jets to NA3HL win at home

Mathias Tellstrom, 19, from Sweden, notched a powerplay goal with 9:06 to play lifting the host Metro Jets to a 4-3 lead it wouldn’t surrender against the West Michigan Wolves in NA3HL play Saturday (Sept. 26).

In other games involving Midwest-based teams on the same day: St. Louis Jr. Blues earned a 3-2 edge on the road against the host Jr. Preds in Nashville; North Iowa Bulls wrapped up a lopsided sweep on the road with an 8-1 i Chicago against the Bulldogs; Southern Tier Express rallied for a 3-2 overtime win at Wooster against the host Oilers; La Crosse Freeze wrapped up a two game sweep at home with a 4-1 margin against the Alexandria Blizzard; Granite City Lumberjacks whipped the Minnesota Flying Aces 7-0; Breezy Point North Stars wrapped up a home and away sweep with a 6-3 doubling of the Rochester Ice Hawks and the Cincinnati Thunder finished off a two game sweep against the Evansville Thunderbolts with a 4-1 decision.

Jets 4 at Wolves 3

The Wolves were on the board first in this one but teams were even at 1-1 after a period. Kevin Shand, 20, from Saline Michigan scored back to back for the Jets in the first five minutes of the second period, both assisted by Michael Tratar,  20, from Madison Heights, MI. David Chavis, 20, from Grosse Pointe Wood, MI had the other Jets goal and Cameron Limburg, 20, from Howell, MI made 30 saves to pick up the win in goal.

Devan Bayne, 18, from Saginaw, MI pulled one back for the Wolves late in the second period and Ryan Price, 19, from New Jersey tied it near the eight minute mark of the third, setting the stage for Tellstrom. Nathan Rieman, 18, from Bay City, MI scored the other Wolves goal and Kevin O’Shea, 19, from Holly, MI made 47 saves in goal for the home team.

The Wolves will make the trip to Jamestown, NY on Friday (Oct. 2) to play the Southern Tier Express and next up for the Jets is a home game against the Pittsburgh Vengeance on Saturday (Oct. 3)

Jr. Blues 3 Jr. Predators 2

It seemed the Jr. Blues team was on its way to a somewhat easy win when Alex Klaesner, 20, from St. Charles, MO and Zach Mitchell, 19, from Chicago, IL scored 55 seconds apart turning a narrow 1-0 lead into a 3-0 cushion just before the halfway mark of the second period at Nashville, the Jr. Pred were far from done.

Dylan Schmidt, 19, from Sterling Heights, MI  got the Preds on the board just a few minutes after the third Blues’ goal and another from Dakota Wilson, 19, from Battle Creek, MI in the fourth minute of the final period made for an exciting finish.

Mitchell also scored the earlier goal for the Jr. Blues and Zach Young, 18, from Robertsville, MO picked up the win in goal with a 30-save effort. Ricky Gonzalez, 18, from Davison, MI turned aside 20 in goal for the Jr. Preds.

The Jr. Blues will be at Evansville on Saturday (Oct. 3).

Bulls 8 at Bulldogs 1

The Bulls picked up right where it left off on the previous night, scoring four times in the opening period and adding two more in the middle frame before Scott Coash Jr., 19, from Plainfield, IL scored the lone Chicago goal 3:50 into the final frame, shattering the shutout bid of David Johnson, 20, from Bloomington, MN who stopped 14 shots to earn the win in goal for the Bulls.

David Min, 19, from Washington scored four times in the Bulls’ win and Tommy Stang, 18, from Mendota Heights, MN fired three goals. Marshall Barnes, 18, from Edina, MN picked up three assists and Brett Gravelle, 20, from Forest Lake, MN collected a goal and two helpers. Jack Stang, 20, from Mendota Heights and Riley Meyer, 18, from Carver, MN both collected two assists.

Jimmy Smith, 19, from Texas made 50 saves in goal for the Bulls.

The Bulls and Bulldogs will wrap up a three-game weekend set tomorrow (Sept. 27).

Southern Tier 3 at Wooster 2 (ot)

Tait Aptakin, 19, from Florida scored just nine seconds from the end of the overtime period to lift the Southern Tier Express to a 3-2 edge on the road against the Wooster Oilers at the Alice Noble Ice Arena.

The Express led twice with the Oilers rallying back to tie it on both occasions. Tyler Houmard, 20, from Canton, OH scored the lone third period goal 6:17 into the frame to force the overtime and Will Schober, 19, from Tipp City, OH scored the earlier Oilers goal. Victor McCutcheon, 19, from New York had the lone first period goal for the Express and the other goal came from Kyler Chartier, 19, from Duluth, MN.

Cody Gibson, 19, from Livonia, MI stopped 35 shots through regulation and ovetime to pick up the win in goal for the Express while Joe Morgan, 19, from Colorado turned aside 25 in goal for the Oilers.

The Oilers’ next game will be at Toledo on Friday (Oct. 2).

Blizzard 1 at Freeze 4 

It was actually the Alexandria Blizzard carrying a 1-0 lead out of the first period at La Crosse on a goal by Alec Seeger, 18, from Anoka, MN.

But the hosts struck back with two in the final three minutes of the second period, from Jared Bromberg, 20, from Rochester, MN and Justin Edwards, 20, from Mosinee, WI and then two more in the final period — again both in the final three minutes –scored by Sam Dabrowski, 17, from Onalaska, WI and Ben Henderson, 19, from North Branch, MN, the final one into an empty goal.

Will Graves, 18, from Minneapolis, MN made 33 saves to pick up the win in goal for La Crosse and Chance Kremer, 19, from Fargo, ND turned aside 21 in goal for the Blizzard.

The Blizzard will return home for a game Friday (Oct. 2) against the Twin City Steel and the Freeze will be at Chicago on Saturday (Oct. 3)

Granite City Lumberjacks 7 at Minnesota Flying Aces 0

Nathan Isaacson, 19, from Monticello, MN stopped all of the 17 shots he faced in goal for the Granite City Lumberjacks who used a five goal second period to move away from the host Minnesota Flying Aces in a 7-0 win at the Exchange Arena.

Lucas Carroll, 18, from St. Francis, MN scored a pair of goals in the game, Michael Piehler, 19, from Texas adding a goal and two assists. Isaac Kobiena, 17, from Wilmar, MN; Andrej Jamnicky, 19, from Slovakia, Kevin Finley, 20, from Alexandria, MN and Matt Flom, 18, from Minot, ND scored the other Lumberjack goals while Tanner Skaja, 20, from St. Cloud, MN and Will Mix, 19, from Washington each added a couple of assists.

Brady Griffin, 19, from Glen Carbon, IL made 36 saves in goal for the Flying Aces.

The Flying Aces will be at Breezy Point Friday (Oct. 2) while the Lumberjacks’ next game will be on home ice against Wisconsin Whalers on the same night.

North Stars 6 at Ice Hawks 3 

After grabbing a win the previous night on home ice, the Breezy Point North Stars found themselves trailing early in the third period against the host Rochester Ice Hawks at Graham Arena after Evan Sabo, 20, from Skokie, IL scored to put his team up 3-2.

Josh Laven, 19, from Hopkins, MN took over from there, scoring his second, third and fourth goals of the game before Jake Tomkowiak, 19, from Lindenhurst, IL put it away with an empty netter, 17 seconds from the final buzzer, adding to a pair of assists earlier in the game.. Nick Reed, 18, from Breezy Point scored the other Stars’ goal, the only goal of the first period.

Along with Sabo, the Ice Hawks got goals from Josh Paulson, 20, from Rochester and Jiri Trubacik, 19, from Chesterfield, MO.

Wes Paupore, 19, from Kingsford, MI made 32 saves to pick up the win in goal for the North Stars and Sam Nelson, 20, from Eau-Claire, WI handled 28 shots in goal for the Ice Hawks.

The North Stars will play on home ice Friday (Oct. 2) against the Minnesota Flying Aces and the Ice Hawks will move on to play at Chicago Oct. 9

Thunder 4 at Thunderbolts 1

Despite a 59 save effort from Brian Forness, 19, from New Jersey, the Thunderbolts could not hold off the Cincinnati Thunder who scored a pair of unanswered third period goals to clinch a 4-1 win.

Marc Anderson, 20, from Canton, MI scored twice and assisted on another to pace the Thunder offense with other goals for Brady Kiplinger, 18, from Springsboro, OH and Rory Callihan, 17, from Liberty Twp., OH. Albert Janele, 18, from Czech Republic picked up a couple of assists and goaltender Timothy O’Sullivan, 20, from Texas turned aside 29 shots to pick up the win.

Triston Theriot, 18, from Fort Wayne, IN scored the lone Thunderbolts goal in the second period.

The Thunderbolts’ next game will see it playing host to St. Louis Jr. Blues on Saturday (Oct. 3) while the Thunder is off until Oct. 10 when it travels to St. Louis to play the Jr. Blues.