Springfield, Illinois – The Springfield Jr. Blues have moved over 350+ players on to NCAA programs and over 140+ players have played professionally. Each week we look to highlight alumni who have made waves in the hockey world. Here is this week’s Alumni Report.
We start this week by discussing University of Vermont hockey as Stefanos Lekkas earned the Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week award for his play this past weekend. The Elburn, IL native recorded 35 saves in a 2-0 win at St. Lawrence, giving Vermont its first win of the year on Saturday. He made 20 saves in the third period alone to pick up his fourth career shutout. In a 3-2 season-opening loss at #9 Clarkson, the senior stopped 29 shots. Lekkas finished the weekend with a 1.52 goals against average and .955 save percentage after saving 64 of 67 shots.
In the Big Ten conference Tommy Nappier stopped 45 of 49 shots over the weekend to help Ohio State University split their series with the University of Nebraska-Omaha. On Friday the junior from St. Louis, MO stopped 25 of 27 to pick up his second win in a 3-2 victory. Saturday the Buckeyes were unable to overcome an early deficit, despite Nappier stopping 20 shots, and Omaha won 2-1. On the season, Nappier is 2-1-1 with a .942 SV% and 1.72 GAA.
Dryden McKay makes another appearance in this week’s Alumni Report as he helped lead Minnesota State-Mankato to a 1-0-1 record against North Dakota this past weekend. McKay earned an Honorable Mention for Goaltender of the Week in the WCHA after stopping 57 of 62 shots, including 34 Saturday night in a 2-1 win. McKay currently has a 3-0-1 record with a .941 SV % and 1.47 GAA.
We turn our attention to the professional ranks for our next two alumni. Les Lancaster is making quite an impression through 4 games played so far for the Allen Americans of the ECHL. Lancaster picked up 3 assists over the weekend including an assist on Saturday’s game winning goal in overtime. He now has 6 assists on the season which currently leads the Americans in points.
Our final spotlight of the week is looking at the netminder for the Rapid City Rush: Tyler Parks. On Saturday night Parks stopped all 31 shots he faced against Tulsa to pick up his 1st shutout of the season. Parks is 2-0-1 on the season and has a .941 SV% and 1.97 GAA for the Rush.
While these players made significant impacts over the weekend, here is a few more alumni who also had big weekends:
- Coale Norris: 1G, 1 A (Ferris State University, NCAA)
- Matt Long: 1 G (Canisius College, NCAA)
- Brian Rigali: 1 G (Univ. of Connecticut, NCAA)
- Pat Curry: 2 G (Boston Univ., NCAA)
- Jack Summers: 1 G (Univ. of Michigan, NCAA)
- Jack Williams: 1 W, Stopped 31 of 34 (Muskegon Lumberjacks, USHL)
- Matthew Cassidy: 2 G (Youngstown Phantoms, USHL)
