Weekend Wrap-Up (Oct. 10/29 -11/1)

Wichita Jr. Thunder @ El Paso Rhinos

10.30.15 – El Paso 7, Wichita 5

10.31.15 – Wichita 3, El Paso 1

11.01.15 – Wichita 2, El Paso 1

The El Paso Rhinos won their home opener over Wichita, but the Jr. Thunder came back to win the next two games – their first two wins ever in El Paso.

The Rhinos built a 4-0 lead in the opener, only to see their lead cut to one goal before recovering and finishing off a 7-5 win.

Johan Pearson and Petr Ceslik each scored twice for the Rhinos and Ryan Buttazoni made 27 saves.

Peter Cicmanec had a pair of goals and an assist for Wichita.

The Jr. Thunder registered their first win in four years at El Paso with a 3-1 victory on Saturday.  Erik Spath allowed just one goal on 33 shots and Jack McClelland scored the game-winner and added an assist.

Ruslans Ignatovics scored for the Rhinos.

Wichita showed on Sunday that Saturday’s result was not a fluke – defeating the Rhinos again, 2-1. 

There was one goal scored in each period of the game.  The Jr. Thunder led, 1-0, after the first period on a goal by David Good, then Matthias Steinmann evened the score with a second period tally for El Paso.

Newly-signed Marc Zajic’s unassisted goal at 6:32 of the third period closed the scoring as Spath (21 saves) made it hold up for Wichita.

Buttazoni made 31 saves for the Rhinos.

Cheyenne Stampede @ Oklahoma City Jr. Blazers 

10.30.15 – Oklahoma City 12, Cheyenne 0

10.31.15 – Cheyenne 4, Oklahoma City 3

11.01.15 – Oklahoma City 2, Cheyenne 0

The Cheyenne Stampede were shut out twice in Oklahoma City, but posted a 4-3 win in the middle game of the series to come home with two points from their inter-division series with the Jr. Blazers.

The Stampede managed to keep Friday’s game close for a while – OKC only led by two after 20 minutes – but the Jr. Blazers pulled away with a half-dozen goals in the second period and won going away, 12-0.

Tomas Nemeth and Colton Nelsen each scored two goals for Oklahoma City and Pavel Oxiouta (1-4-5) had a five point night.  Filip Kostka stopped all 17 shots he faced for the shutout.

The Jr. Blazers scored twice in the first 3:56 of the game on Saturday and it looked like the rout was on again, but the Cheyenne Stampede responded in a big way and came back for what was a huge character win on the road.

Three goals in a span of 7:55 gave the Stampede a 3-2 lead before the end of the first period.

Tomas Nemeth scored two goals in the game for the Jr. Blazers – the second one coming with 1:39 remaining in the third period and making it a one goal game after Cheyenne had opened up a two-goal lead.

Patrik Asenbrenner made 43 saves in the game for the Stampede, stopping 34 of 35 shots over the final two periods.

Sunday’s runner match was a hard-fought tight-checking affair that saw Kostka post a 25-save shutout for the Jr. Blazers. 

The game was scoreless for the first 38:46.  Drake Johnson finally broke the ice for the Jr. Blazers with 1:14 left in the second period with assists going to Kole Hudson and Jiri Hajda.

Johan Sorkin doubled OKC’s lead three minutes into the third period with Hudson again drawing an assist and that would be all of the scoring in the game.

Asenbrenner turned in another valiant effort for Cheyenne, making 51 saves in the game.

Tulsa Jr. Oilers @ Colorado Evolution

10.30.15 – Tulsa 6, Evolution 2

10.31.15 – Tulsa 10, Evolution 7

11.01.15 – Tulsa 8, Evolution 3

The Tulsa Jr. Oilers travelled to Denver and brought all six points home with them following a three-game sweep of the Colorado Evolution.

Tulsa stormed out to a 3-0 first period lead, Colorado closed the gap to 3-2, but the Jr. Oilers scored three more for a 6-2 win on Friday.

Six different Tulsa skaters scored, including Sam Mancini who added a pair of assists, and Richard Albrecht turned aside 24 of 26 shots to earn the win.   Maxim Chegrintsev had three assists for the Jr. Oilers.

The Jr. Oilers scored at least three goals in every period of a wide-open 10-7 win on Saturday. 

Chegrintsev scored five goals in the game for Tulsa and assisted on two others for a seven-point night.  Augusts Viedenbaums (2-3-5) and Mancini (2-2-4) each had two-goal games.

Kiwill Proskuwin scored twice for Colorado while John Nguyen and Harmen Vining each had a goal and two assists.

Tulsa completed the sweep with an 8-3 win on Sunday. 

Colorado fought back from an early 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead 8:55 into the second period, but the Jr. Oilers responded with three goals in a span of 6:34 to go back on top, 5-3, by the end of the frame.

Tulsa tacked on three more goals in the third period to salt the game away.  Chegrintsev, Mancini and Luke Novack each scored two goals for the Jr. Oilers and Michael Howard and Nicholas Walsh each had three assists.

The Snipers and Express both had the weekend off.