Springfield, Illinois – The Jr. Blues are in full swing and so are dozens of our alumni. From the NCAA, to the AHL, and Europe, here are a few spotlights of our Alumni from this past week in today’s Alumni Report!
We begin today at Bowling Green State University where Senior forward Coale Norris put up 3 points this past weekend including his first goal as part of the Falcons. Norris, a native of Oxford, MI, registered his first assist and point for Bowling Green in the Falcons 2-2 tie against Miami (OH). On Saturday he would get another assist before scoring an empty netter for his first goal of the season. In 126 career NCAA games between Ferris State and Bowling Green, Norris has accumulated 32 goals and 34 assists. Norris played for the Jr. Blues during the 2015-16 NAHL season (pictured above).
From Bowling Green, Ohio to Khabarovsk, Russia, our next spotlight is on defenseman Ruslan Pedan who is currently playing for Amur Khabarovsk in the KHL. On Sunday Pedan scored his first goal of the season in Amur’s 3-0 victory over Dinamo Minsk. The 26 year old native of Kaunas, Lithuania is in his sixth season in the KHL and in 127 career games he has 3 goals and 11 assists with 101 penalty minutes. After playing in Springfield during the 2011-12 season, Pedan played three seasons for Bemidji State University before playing professionally in Eastern Europe.
Turning our attention back to North American professional hockey, we take a peek at how forward Russell Jordan of the Birmingham Bulls has been doing to start the 2021-22 SPHL season. In two games this past weekend Jordan had 3 goals and 1 assist as he now has 5 points in 4 games to start the season. Jordan is in his third full professional season and his third with the Bulls after briefly playing for the Pensacola Ice Flyers (SPHL), Fort Wayne Komets (ECHL), and Kalamazoo Wings (ECHL). After playing for the Jr. Blues during the 2012-13 season, he played one season at the Univ. of Wisconsin-River Falls before finishing out his NCAA career at Hamline Univ. In 59 career SPHL games Jordan has scored 18 goals and 17 assists and 147 penalty minutes.
And our final spotlight of the week is on forward Mason McCormick who currently is playing for the Waterloo BlackHawks of the USHL. Over the weekend McCormick scored his first goal of the season for the BlackHawks as he now has 1 goal and 1 assist in 9 games. The Verona, WI native committed to the Air Force Academy earlier this season after capturing a Robertson Cup Championship last season with the Shreveport Mudbugs. In 18 games played for the Jr. Blues during the 2019-20 season, McCormick scored 2 goals and added 8 helpers to go along with 16 penalty minutes. He is currently a teammate in Waterloo of fellow alum Jack Williams.
And while these players may have had big weekends, here are a few other alumni who also impressed!
Brandon Puricelli 2 G F Lake Superior State NCAA
Ethan Stewart 1 A F Ferris State NCAA
Bradley Marek 1 A F Ferris State NCAA
Sam Craggs 1 A F Bowling Green NCAA
Ryan Leibold 1 A F Holy Cross NCAA
Kevin Klima 2 A F HK Hradec Kralove Czech
Ricards Bernhards 1 A F Kiruna AIF HockeyEtten
Martin Liljekvist 2 A D Tegs HockeyEtten
Sandro Aeschlimann 1-0-0 G HC Davos NL
Janis Voris 1-0-0, SO G Donbass Ukraine
Brennan Blaszczak 1 G, 1 A F Pensacola Ice Flyers SPHL
Nate Chasteen 1 A F Peoria Rivermen SPHL (First Pro Point)
Congratulations to all of these young men for their hard work and dedication to the game of hockey! Springfield is proud of the work you have done and we look forward to seeing what else you are able to accomplish moving forward!
