Jr. Blues Sweep all 3 Games at NA3HL Showcase
Tuesday, December 17St. Louis 4 @ Austin 3 – The St Louis Jr. Blues snuck by the Austin Ice Bats with a 4-3 win on Tuesday. St. Louis and Austin began by playing hot potato with the score as there were four lead changes before either team scored consecutively. Jaxson Karandjeff opened the scoring for St. Louis, but was answered by Thomas Forgrave for Austin. Brayden Davis put the Blues back on top, before Forgrave cut them down and evened the score once again. Kaiden Gordon found a bingo to open the third period and put Austin on top, a feat which was not held for long before Rece Sanderson evened the score at 3-3. Davis played spoiler for Austin as his second goal for the evening put St, Louis up 4-3 late in the third, a lead which the Jr. Blues were able to cling onto to secure the victory.
Monday, December 16 – St. Louis 4 @ Badlands 0 – St. Louis blanked Badlands as Travis Visvadra stopped all 18 shots he faced on the evening. The Jr. Blues opened the scoring in the back-half of the first period. Jack Reuss grabbed his fifth goal of the season as St. Louis led 1-0 after 20 minutes. The Jr. Blues added a pair of goals in the middle frame. Kelly Coldwater potted his third of the season in the first three minutes of the period before Kyle Settles scored on the power play with under four minutes to play. It was Settles’ eighth of the year to tie him for the team lead. Brady Cook put the final tally on the board in the final frame to bring the game to its 4-0 final. Visvadra notched the shutout while Oger Hunter made 28 saves in 32 tries for the Sabres. St. Louis improves to 9-9-3-0 (21 points) this season and sit fifth in the Central Division. Badlands drops to 14-11-3-2 (33 points) and ranks fourth in the Frontier Division. The Sarbes are two points behind third place Great Falls and three points ahead of fifth place Bozeman.
Sunday, December 15 – New Hampshire 0 @ St. Louis 5 – The St. Louis Jr. Blues claimed a decisive win over the New Hampshire Jr. Mountain Kings. Carter Duy opened the scoring in the first period, netting 2 goals just a few minutes apart for St. Louis. In the second period, Joseph LoPiccolo found the back of the net just 37 seconds in followed by a goal from Brady Cook later on in the period bringing the score to 4-0. Mason Wright secured St. Louis’ win on a short-handed goal with 42 seconds left in the third period. New Hampshire’s goaltender, Charlie Donoghue saved 33 out of the 38 shots he faced in the loss, while Alexander Rivolta saved all 20 shots he faced to earn his first NA3HL shutout.
