Springfield, Illinois – The Springfield Jr. Blues travelled up to Eagle River, WI this past weekend for our first trip to the historic Dome to take on the Wisconsin Windigo – finishing with a weekend split that pushes our record to 7-11-2-1 for 17 points.
Friday: SPR 5 – 4 WIS (OT)
Friday night was a special teams battle that saw three power play goals and four short-handed goals between both teams. The Windigo got on the board early, but Anthony Ruklic tied the game two minutes later with his 6th goal of the season. Max Martin would give the Windigo the lead late in the period with a power play tally but the never say die Jr. Blues would even the score when Alex Fendler scored a shorthanded goal to send the teams to the locker rooms tied at 2-2.
Will Schumacher would put the Windigo up by one midway through he second period with his league leading 16th goal of the season as he would capitalize on a power play opportunity. With the Jr. Blues shorthanded again late the period, Isaac Keller would notch another shorthanded goal to tie the game at 3-3 heading into the third period.
The third period didn’t see much even strength play as both teams got into penalty trouble picking up six minor penalties each. Niko Laus would give the Jr. Blues a 3-2 lead when he tallied the teams third shorthanded goal of the game at the 11:35 mark. Wisconsin’s Max Martin would add a shorthanded goal of his own at 16:08 to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Overtime wasn’t much different than the first three periods as Martin was called for hooking early into the 3-3 action sending the Jr. Blues to a 4-3-man advantage. Landry Schmuck would fire a shot past Linards Lipskis to give the Jr. Blues a 5-4 OT win.
Alex Fendler, Andon Coles, Zach Peller, Andrew Schultz, Simzon Koch, and Logan Opgrand picked up assists in the contest while goaltender JJ Cataldo stopped 27 of 31 and picked up his 7th win of the season.
Saturday: SPR 2 – 6 WIS
It was all Windigo on Saturday night as they came out of the gates flying and would jump out to a 2-0 lead before the 5-minute mark of the first period. Landry Schmuck would make it a one goal game when he would capitalize on a Jr. Blues power play midway through the period. The Windigo would add two more before the end of the first and head into break with a 4-1 lead.
Jr. Blues defensemen Jake Peterson would add a goal early in the second period to cut the Windigo lead to two but that is as close as they would get. The Windigo would add two more goals and secure a 6-2 win.
Zach Howard (2), and Peterson added assists and netminder JJ Cataldo stopped 18 of 24 in the loss.
The Jr. Blues return home this weekend as we welcome the Janesville Jets to the Nelson Center. Friday’s game will get underway at 7:05 PM and Saturday’s puck drop is 6:05 PM. Come on out to the Nelly for some FAST-PACED FAMILY FUN!
