Jr. Blues Earn First Victory Against the Generals

Sep 21, 2018

The Springfield Jr. Blues played their second game of the NAHL Showcase last night and bounced back with a 3-1 win over the Northeast Generals. The Jr. Blues were led by Ben Schmidling (St. Joseph, MO) offensively and a stellar performance between the pipes by Caleb Hannon (Buffalo, NY).

It was a quiet first period on the score sheet from both teams despite 13 shots by the Jr. Blues. The Generals had three 1st period power play opportunities but were unable to capitalize on any of them and heading into the first break the game was even, 0-0.

Reminiscent of Wednesday night’s game, an offensive breakout in the second period by the Jr. Blues proved to be too much for the Generals to handle. Just 1:11 into the second frame Brandon Puricelli (St. Louis, MO) put the Jr. Blues in the driver seat and set the tone for the remainder of the period. The Schmidling brothers, Ben and David (St. Joseph, MO), both had assists on the Puricelli goal. The Jr. Blues would add to the lead just under four minutes later when Ben Schmidling notched his second goal of the season with assists from David Schmidling and Max Brainin (Buffalo Grove, IL). A third tally with 6:22 left in the period again by Ben Schmidling put the Jr. Blues up 3-0, the goal was assisted by David Schmidling and Max Brainin. The boys in blue put up 21 shots in the 2nd period and 43 throughout the game.

The 3rd period was a much better effort by the Northeast Generals as they were able to break up the shut out for Caleb Hannon with a goal by Aurel Naus just over five minutes into the period. But that would be all the offense that the Generals could muster, and the Jr. Blues held on for the 3-1 win.

Hannon finished with 32 saves and helped the Jr. Blues earn their first victory of the campaign. Ben Schmidling was on fire scoring two goals and adding an assist for three points on the evening. Not to be outdone by his brother, David Schmidling had three assists and both were plus-3 on the evening. The pair currently lead the team in points with four points apiece through two games. 

The Jr. Blues look to continue their winning ways this afternoon against the Odessa Jackalopes at 1:30 p.m. Odessa is coming off a huge comeback yesterday against the New Jersey Titans where they scored four 3rd period goals including three within two minutes to raise their record to 2-2-0-1. The last meeting between the Jr. Blues and Odessa took place at the 2015 NAHL Showcase where Odessa beat the Jr. Blues 5-1.

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