Springfield, Illinois – The Springfield Jr. Blues knocked off the Kenai River Brown Bears on Saturday night, 3-2. The Jr. Blues took three out of four possible points on the weekend and currently sit in 4th in the Midwest Division with a 3-2-1-0 record.
Giovanni Carabelli (Shelby Township, MI) started the scoring off in the 1st period with his second goal of the season and gave the Jr. Blues a 1-0 lead heading into the first break. Jonathan Panisa (Irvine, CA) scored his first NAHL goal in the 2nd period in just his second game with the team to put the Jr. Blues back on top, 2-1.
Brandon Puricelli (St. Louis, MO) extended his point streak to five games and scored the would be game winning goal on the power play to extend the lead to 3-1 heading into the 2nd intermission. Caden Villegas (Plano, TX) recorded his first point as part of the Jr. Blues and Nikita Kozyrev (Tallinn, Estonia) notched his fifth assist of the season during the game.
Kenai River scored once in the 2nd period and again in the 3rd period to draw the game close, but Jack Williams (St. Louis, MO) shut the door on any ideas of a comeback to pick up his second win of the season. Williams stopped 27 of 29 shots including an outstanding save on a Brown Bears player who had walked in all alone on a breakaway in the 1st period.
The power play scored for the fourth straight game for the Jr. Blues and their sixth goal already on the season. To this point, the Jr. Blues have scored a power play goal in every game except one game during the showcase and look to add to the momentum this weekend against the Topeka Pilots.
Friday night’s game starts at 7:05 p.m. and Saturday night’s game starts at 6:05 p.m. Topeka currently sits tied for 1st in the South Division but are coming off being swept by the Amarillo Bulls over the weekend.
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