Three goal opener lifts NAHL Blues past Bruins

Among the 11 games on the second day of the Annual North American Hockey League Showcase Tournament Thursday (Sept. 24) was an all-Midwest battle in which the Springfield Blues opened up a 3-0 first period lead and just carried that margin home for a 4-1 win against the Austin Bruins.

In other games involving Midwest based teams: The Odessa Jackalopes broke into the win column with a 3-2 margin against the Janesville Jets; the Johnstown Tomahawks shutout the Brookings Blizzard 4-0 ; the Minnesota Wilderness held off the Amarillo Bulls 3-1; the Wichita Falls Wildcats edged the Coulee Region Chill 2-1; the Aberdeen Wings doubled the Kenai River Brown Bears 4-2; Minot Minotauros downed the Aston Rebels 3-2; Topeka Roadrunners defeated Bismarck Bobcats and the New Jersey Titans doubled the Minnesota Magicians 4-2.

Blues 4 vs. Bruins 1

After 16 minutes of scoreless play the Blues erupted for three goals in the final four minutes of the opening period as Kyle Meeh, 20, from St. Louis, MO; Michael Houle, 19, from Oxford, MI and Brady Tomlak, 19, from Oakland, MI each pulled the trigger on one.

Joey Lupo, 19, from St. Louis made it a 4-0 lead with 2:53 to play in the middle period and Justin Misiak, 19, from St. Clair Shores, MI had the Bruins only goal 30 seconds from the second period buzzer.

Goaltenders turned aside everything in the final period, Tommy Nappier on his way to a 27-save win in goal for the Blues and Kristofer Carlson turning aside 29 of 33 for the Bruins.

Jackalopes 3 vs. Jets 2 

Brandon Tucker, 19 from Colorado scored with 7:22 to go, lifting the Odessa Jackalopes into a 3-2 win position.

After a scoreless opening frame, Martin Sundberg, 19, from Sweden, had the Jets up by a goal 6:32 into the second period but Odessa struck back with goals from Gray Marr, 20, from AB and Daniel Kiraly, 20, from Arizona before the end of the period.

Taylor Fernandez, 20, from Northville, MI pulled the Jets even right on the halfway mark of the third, setting the stage for Tucker’s goal.

Gunnar Rivers, 20, from Georgia stopped 27 shots to pick up the win in goal and Blake Weyrick, 19, from California stopped 20 for the Jets.

Blizzard 0 vs. Tomahawks 4

The Brookings Blizzard was unable to solve Nick DeSimone, 19, from Pennsylvania who turned aside 28 shots to nail down the shutout for the Johnstown Tomahawks who scored single goals in the first and second periods and then put it away with two more in the third including the final one into an empty goal.

Alex Alger, 20, from Livonia, MI scored the first and final goals for the Tomahawks and the other two came from Zak Galambos, 18, from California and Austin Heakins, 20, from Pennsylvania.

Eric Hancock, 20, from North Royalton, OH stopped 35 of 38 in goal for the Blizzard.

Bulls 1 vs. Wilderness 3

The Wilderness grabbed its second win in two days at the tournament as unanswered goals in the second and third periods lifted them from a 1-1 draw after the first period.

Casey Gilling, 17, from Gaylord, MI; Ryan Bloom, 20, from Novi, MI and Tony DeVito, 20, from Bloomingdale, IL scored the Wilderness goals, two of them on set ups from Milo Ville, 20, from France. Chase Munroe, 20, from Naperville, IL made 18 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Wilderness.

Zach Sarnowski, 19, from Florida had the Bulls in front with his goal 3:20 into the game, but that was the only goal his team could muster. Jacob Weatherly, 19, from Colorado made 35 saves in goal for the Bulls.

Chill 1 vs. Wildcats 2

After unanswered goals in both the first and second periods for the Wichita Falls Wildcats, Sam Wenner, 18, from St. Peter, MN not only shattered the shutout bid of goaltender Julian Sime, 17, from Ontario, he also got his team right back in the game with 11:34 to play.

However, that was the only shot to get by Sime in this one, his 16-save effort enough for the narrow win by the Wildcats.

Michael Rounds, 18, from Mount Pleasant, MI and Max Reisinger, 20, from Austria scored the Wildcats goals, the only two of 28 shots faced by Coulee Region Chill netminder Hunter Vorva, 20, from Kalamazoo, MI to find the mesh.

Wings 4 vs. Brown Bears 2 

Even at 1-1 after a period, the Wings grabbed a 3-2 lead in the second and secured the win with an empty net goal in the third for a 4-2 win against the Kenai River Brown Bears

Gavin Payne, 19, from Minneonka, MN scored twice to pace the Wings with other goals added by Tyler Bossert, 18, from Fargo, ND and Ethan Stewart, 18, from Rockford, IL. Evan Butcher, 18, from Alaska and Gunnar Goodmanson, 19, from Buffalo, MN both scored for the Brown Bears.

Peter Thome, 18, from Minneapolis made 21 saves to collect the win in goal and Brian Baker, 20, from Pennsylvania handled 36 of 39 in goal for the Brown Bears.

Minotauros 3 vs. Rebels 2 

The Minotauros scored twice in the game’s first nine minutes and carried a 2-1 lead out of the first period against the Aston Rebels. One more in the second padded the lead and and was enough to hold off a one-goal uprising from the Rebels in the final frame.

Christian Mohs, 20, from Andover, MN; Jacob Dittel, 19, from Hugo, MN and James LaDouce, 20, from Freeland, MI scored the Minotauro goals and Derek Frentz, 19, from North Mankato, MN picked up a couple of assists. Goaltender Jon Flakne, 19, from Maple Plain, MN made 15 stops to picked up the win.

Andrew Zerban, 19, from Elk River, MN scored the lone Rebels goal and Trevor Micucci, 18, from New York made 36 saves in goal.

Roadrunners 3 vs. Bobcats 1

JB Baker, 20, from Maryland sank the clinching goal into an empty net with just 26 seconds to play as the Topeka Roadrunners got by the Bismarck Bobcats 3-1 in a battle of two Midwest-based teams.

Matt Jennings, 18, from Georgia and Ryan O’Connor 19, from New York sank the first two for the Roadrunners in the opening period, O’Connor on a powerplay and Jennings with a shorthanded tally.

Nick Alexander, 17, from Texas scored the only goal of the second period for the Bobcats.

Tyler Johnson, 17, from New York made 23 saves to nail down the win for the Roadrunners and Hunter Shepard, 20, from Cohasset, MN stopped 25 in goal for the Cats.

Magicians 2 vs. Titans 4

The final game of the day on Thursday saw the New Jeresey Titans turning a 1-1 draw after a period into a 3-2 edge by the end of the second and adding an insurance goal early in the third for a 4-2 doubling of the Minnesota Magicians.

Anthony Cusanelli, 19, from New Jersey and Jesse Farabee, 19, from New York had a goal and assist apiece for the Titans and Darren Brady, 19, from Waterford, MI collected three assists. Other Titan goals came from  Raymond Brice, 20, from Houghton, MI and Keegan Miller, 19, from Kalamazoo, MI.

Travis Brown, 19, from Otsego, MN and Jack Christensen, 20, from Connecticut both scored for the Magicians.

Spencer Wright, 18, from Farmington Hills, MI made 23 saves to nail down the win for the Titans while Vaughan Ahrens, 18, from Plymouth, MN stopped 31 of 35 in goal for the Magicians.