The USPHL Premier Semifinals will be played on Sunday, March 23, at the Ice Vault at Wayne, N.J. A variety of close and unexpected scores dominated the Saturday night Round Robin Day 3 games. The final product will see the following semifinal games:
(1) Tampa Bay Juniors vs. (4) Vernal Oilers, 2:30 p.m.
(2) Potomac Patriots vs. (3) Springfield Pics, 3:00 p.m.
Below are the results of the Premier action from Saturday.
Fort Wayne Spacemen 9, Universel Sherbrooke 0
Bogdan Vysotsky scored three goals and added three assists in a decisive win for the Spacemen over Universel Sherbrooke to end both teams’ round robin runs in Wayne, N.J. Additionally, Ivan Barnashov had three assists, and Ivan Khyrsa scored two goals and added one assist. Christopher Gingras stopped all 24 shots he faced for a shutout, a great way to end his fantastic junior career.
P.A.L. Jr. Islanders 5, Minnesota Squatch 1
Brett LoGelfo and Joe Sousa each scored a goal and added two assists for three-point efforts in helping the Jr. Islanders defeat the Minnesota Squatch by a 5-1 score. James Clifford added a goal and an assist and Ryunosuke Shirozu had two assists in the win. In net, Avery Hite made 26 saves on 27 shots for the win.
Tampa Bay Juniors 5, Fresno Monsters 4
The Juniors’ Augie Ashley, Onni Puikkonen, and Ari Blatt each had a goal and an assist, including the ENG GWG by Ashley for a 5-4 come-from-behind win by the Tampa Bay Juniors to give them what would turn out to be the No. 1 overall seed in the Premier semifinals. Nate Galbraith stopped 29 of 30 shots for the win for Tampa and Brooks Barofsky stopped 39 of 43 for Fresno.
Potomac Patriots 4, Vernal Oilers 3
Conner Nieto scored a huge GWG to lift Potomac above the Vernal Oilers and help them clinch the Division 2 Round Robin championship and semifinals berth. Bryce Grandbois had three assists, and Viggo Boston made 37 saves on 40 shots in net. Levente Hegedus stopped 29 of 33 shots for the Oilers.
Springfield Pics 6, Metro Jets 0
The Pics’ Troy Huber made 31 saves on all 31 shots that the Metro Jets put on him as the Pics worked their way to a 6-0 victory that pushed Springfield into the National Semifinals. Jacob Carey made two goals and two assists, Ryan Zabchuk had a goal and an assist, and Justin Hooper and Nick Zanin each registered two assists. The Pics will face the Potomac Patriots at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
