Springfield, Illinois – The Springfield Jr. Blues are rolling along nicely in our 2021-22 NAHL season, and our alumni are matching us stride for stride! From the NCAA to the ECHL and beyond, here is today’s Alumni Report!
We begin today where we’ve begun so often the last few years – Mankato, MN – where Senior netminder Dryden McKay picked up his 5th CCHA Goaltender of the Week award this season after leading the top ranked Mavericks to a weekend sweep of Bowling Green. The Downers Grove, IL native recorded a 27 save victory on Friday in their 3-1 victory over the Falcons and then followed that performance up with a 19 save shutout in their 5-0 win. McKay now has 24-7-0 record with a 1.27 GAA, .932 SV%, and 9 shutouts – as his NCAA career record for clean slates now sits at 33. He was recently named to the Mike Richter Award Watch List as well as being a nominee for the Hobey Baker Award. McKay has now appeared in 128 NCAA games with the Mavericks and has a career stat line of 102-19-4, 1.47 GAA, .932 SV%, and 33 shutouts. He played here in Springfield during the 2014-15 season before playing two seasons in the USHL.
From Mankato, MN to De Pere, WI our next spotlight focuses on junior forward Max Brainin who had a standout performance for the St. Norbert Green Knights who swept MSOE this past weekend. In Friday’s 6-1 victory Brainin scored the opening goal on the Power Play and added a second goal in the 3rd period before adding his third goal of the weekend in Saturday’s 5-2 win. On the season the Buffalo Grove, IL native has 4 goals and 1 assist to increase his career NCAA DIII totals to 8 goals and 10 assists in 41 appearances. Max played here in Springfield from 2017-2019 (Pictured Above) and appeared in 115 games, scoring 37 goals, 62 assists, and was named to the 2019 NAHL Top Prospects Tournament.
We leave the world of collegiate hockey to begin our look at professional hockey – and we begin in Toledo, OH where forward Brady Tomlak had an offensive outburst for the Walleye in four games this past weekend. Last Wednesday the Oakland, MI native tallied two assists in Toledo’s 6-3 victory over the Indy Fuel and then tallied two more assists on Saturday in their 5-2 victory over Cincinnati. Tomlak now has 7 goals, 11 assists, and is a +5 in 41 games this season for the Walleye to push his career ECHL numbers to 15 goals and 24 assists in 108 appearances. Tomlak played for the Jr. Blues from 2014-2016, appearing in 118 games and scored 30 goals and 41 assists.
Our final spotlight this morning takes us to Pensacola, FL where veteran forward Brennan Blaszczak has proved that being named Captain of the Ice Flyers was no fluke as he tallied two goals over the weekend including the game winner in the shootout. Blaszczak, a native of Las Vegas, NV, scored a goal early in the 2nd and then buried the game winner in the extra session in the Ice Flyers 5-4 victory over Macon. On the season he now has 16 goals and 9 assists in 24 games and has been on a tear since returning from injury: 8 goals and 2 assists in 5 games since January 22nd. In three seasons in Pensacola he has appeared in 61 games and has collected 22 goals and 15 assists and was part of their Championship team in 2020-21. He played here in Springfield from 2015-2017, appearing in 114 games and recorded 41 goals and 29 assists.
While these young men have performed above and beyond, they are far from the only alumni who excelled this past week! Here are the rest of the Alumni!
Tommy Nappier 1-0-0 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins AHL
Patrick Curry 1 A Grand Rapids Griffins AHL
Stefanos Lekkas 1-1-0 Wheeling Nailers ECHL
Ross Olsson 1 G Worcester Railers ECHL
Matheson Iacopelli 1 G, 1 A Kalamazoo Wings ECHL
Christian Simeone 1 A Utah Grizzlies ECHL
Russell Jordan 1 G Florida Everblades ECHL
Timothy Faulkner 1 A Evansville Thunderbolts SPHL
Brad Denney 1 A Port Huron Prowlers FPHL
Ricards Bernhards 2 A Kiruna AIF HockeyEttan
Radim Matus 1 G Orli Znojmo ICEHL
Les Lancaster 1 A Ilves Liiga
TJ Friedmann 2 A Quinnipiac NCAA
Will Gavin 2 G, 1 A Air Force NCAA
Daniel DiGrande 1 A Canisius NCAA
Nigel Nelson 1 A MSOE NCAA DIII
Jack Nickels 1 A MSOE NCAA DIII
Chase Mickelson 1 G, 1 A St. Norbert NCAA DIII
Ben Schmidling 1 A St. Norbert NCAA DIII
Reed Stark 1 G, 2 A UW-Superior NCAA DIII
Max Osborne 2 G Saint John’s NCAA DIII
Andrew Erwin 2 A Hamline NCAA DIII
Kyler Yeo 1 A Augsburg NCAA DIII
Nikita Kozyrev 1 G Buffalo State NCAA DIII
Trent DeNuccio 1 A SUNY-Geneseo NCAA DIII
Cade Groton 1 G Hamilton NCAA DIII
Justin Brandt 1 A Tufts NCAA DIII
Josh Sarlo 1-0-0 Tufts NCAA DIII
Zach Shapiro 1 A Middlebury NCAA DIII
Mark Leach 2 A Saint Anselm NCAA DIII
Zach Tyson 1 G, 3 A Hobart NCAA DIII
Jeffrey Skinner 1 G, 2 A UMass-Boston NCAA DIII
Callahan Johnson 1 G Skidmore NCAA DIII
Davis Browning 1 A UMass-Boston NCAA DIII
Jack Williams 1-0-0 Waterloo Black Hawks USHL
