Springfield, Illinois – The Springfield Jr. Blues traveled to Cloquet, MN this past weekend for a pair of games against the Minnesota Wilderness. The Jr. Blues played from behind both nights and battled back but eventually dropped both games by a single goal, Friday 4-3, and Saturday 4-3 in overtime. With the pair of losses, the Jr. Blues drop to 0-6-2 on the season.
Friday: SPR 3 – MNW 4
On Friday night, the Jr. Blues fell behind early before Hadley Hudak would tie the game 1-1 late in the first period. The Jr. Blues would come out for the second period a little flat and Minnesota scored three times to end the period with a 4-1 lead. Down three heading into the final period, the Jr. Blues would come out with a never-say-never attitude to battle back and make it 4-3 but would eventually run out of time. Trey Jefferis and Logan Ganz tallied goals in the third period and Justin Cataldo stopped 40-44 in net for the Jr. Blues.
Saturday: SPR 3 – MNW 4 (OT)
With the Jr. Blues looking for a little redemption on Saturday, things didn’t really go as planned as the Wilderness would jump out to an early 3-0 lead in the first period before Captain Jake Peterson would cut the deficit to two goals before the period’s end. The second period would see neither team get on the board and the score remained 3-1 heading into the third. The third period would see lots of fast paced action and the Jr. Blues would get goals from Trey Jefferis and Bobby Bartell with under a minute left in regulation to send the game to overtime but would eventually lose. Nick Bunch stopped 11-14 for the Jr. Blues before being replaced by Cataldo who stopped 21-22 shots faced.
By the Numbers:
- Newcomer Trey Jefferis scored in both games on the weekend to give him 2 goals in 3 games with the Jr. Blues. Jefferis is committed to play Division 1 hockey at Sacred Heart University.
- Bobby Bartell notched his first goal and multi point game Saturday night for the Jr. Blues
- With his 3-point night on Saturday, Defensemen Jake Peterson moved into a tie with forward Logan Ganz as the team’s leading scorers with 6 points.
