Soldotna, Alaska – Brandon Puricelli’s 20th goal of the season helped propel the Jr. Blues to a 4-2 win on Thursday night. Nikita Kozyrev would tally a goal and two assists in the contest, and Jack Williams would stop 25 of 27 shots to earn his 11th victory of the season.
Things started off badly for the Jr. Blues as Brown Bears forward Zach Krajnik scored just :57 into the game to give the home team a 1-0 lead. The Jr. Blues would tally late in the period on Max Brainin’s 11th goal of the season to tie the game 1-1.
Kozyrev would score his 4th goal of the season just before the halfway mark of the 2nd period to give the Jr. Blues a 2-1 lead. The Brown Bears would answer back a little under three minutes later on a goal by JJ Boucher. That would be all the offense that Williams would allow, stopping all 9 shots in the 3rd period.
Nick Techel would score the game winning goal with 8:33 left in regulation, and Puricelli would net his 20th goal of the season less than a minute later and the Jr. Blues were in front 4-2 and that remained the final score. Sam Sterne added two assists of his own, while Ryan Reid, Aaron Swanson, Giovanni Carabelli, and Blake Finley each had one assist. The assist by Finley, on Techel’s game winning goal, is his first point in the NAHL.
A rematch is set for this evening at 10:30 pm AKST (7:30 pm CST). Tune into HockeyTV to catch all of the action live!
