Las Vegas Thunderbirds 2(OT), Hinton Timberwolves 1
Emil Svartbro scored the game winner to gain the win over Hinton in the first overtime of this year’s Showcase.
Hinton had the start they intended when they opened the scoring on a goal by Logan Arsenault at 23:26 of the first half. The quick goal did little to dissuade the Thunderbirds in their home city as time and space grew scarce with the minutes ticking.
Tomas Urbanec leveled the game at 12:01 when he dashed into the Hinton zone and skated across Kolter Pawlick’s crease, forcing him to open up and buried it into the net. Las Vegas took control of the match after they tied it and proceeded to outshoot Hinton 11-7 in the frame.
Rhett Brucker was solid in net making 18 saves and pushing through overtime to hold on.
Bellingham Blazers 4, CPJHL 3
After dropping a 7-3 game to the Fresno Monsters, the Bellingham Blazers get a win at Showcase against a very well matched CPJHL side.
Ian Ball scored twice for the Blazers as did Ethan Scrimgeour for CPJHL. Two more skaters in Seth Hebert and Jeremy Dewar made an appearance for the Blazers.
Bellingham didn’t wait long to break the deadlock, a minute into the match Dewar lit the lamp but CPJHL answered right back with Scrimgeour’s first of the morning.
The Blazers opted for the two-goal lead starting at 19:56 of the first and 12:43 with S. Hebert and Ball’s second. It was a very fluid game with only one recorded penalty being assessed to Josh Bozek of CPJHL.
CPJHL came back with two straight goals to tie the game 3-3 going into the second half. Ball’s second of the morning manifested as the game-winner at 13:58 of the second half.
Seattle Totems 7, Cold Lake Hornets 3
Rustam Kulizade was pulled early in the game after facing 7 shots and Daniil Goryachev relieved him to then make 18 saves and reach a victory in their Showcase opener.
Cameron Waisman scored a hat trick and four points to pull away from the buzzing Hornets. Oliver Dufaker scored two goals and Steven Brachert registered four points.
Both clubs found the back of the net three times in the first half. Cold Lake’s Brayden Grassi, Yauheni Lavrov, and Trey Beck got on the board but their sting dissipated after half time.
The Totems strung together four consecutive goals to overwhelm Cold Lake in the second half. Although both sides were essentially even in shots, Waisman was on point and reached his hat trick with back-to-back goals at 10:48 and 9:26.
Wichita Jr. Thunder 3, Southern Oregon Spartans 2
Quinn O’Reilly opened a two-goal lead in the first half with a pair of goals as Wichita persisted to its second win at Showcase. Southern Oregon extends their winless streak to 19 games.
Wichita had the two-goal advantage for a brief period but subsequent action 20 seconds later resulted in a Spartans goal by Jeremy Vant Geloof. Down a goal, the Spartans were contained to their own zone for a good portion of the second period as they couldn’t keep their first half momentum going.
Wichita made it 3-1 early in the second frame when Thomas Srsha found twine at 19:58. Southern Oregon had another goal in them and it came on the power play, though they scored it with very little time remaining.
Edson Aeros 1, Ogden Mustangs 3
The Ogden Mustangs and Edson Aeros met for the first time since playing in the Thorne Cup Semi Finals in April. Both clubs also played each other in last year’s Showcase with the Mustangs taking a commanding 8-2 victory.
Lucas Vacin netted two goals inching the Mustangs past the Aeros in amore tightly contested matchup. Vacin made it 2-0 after Harry Gulliver opened the scoring at 6:08 of the first half.
Edson cut the lead in half in the final two minutes of the period and carried the momentum into halftime break. Vacin not only had the game-winner but also the final insurance goal to seal the win and snap Edson’s 21-game win streak.
Barrhead Bombers 0, Valencia Flyers 5
The Valencia Flyers found their first win since the month of October and Brooks DiMarino secured his first shutout of the season blanking the Barrhead Bombers.
Michael Onda led all Flyers with two goals and Deva Shahi tied for the lead with two points on two helpers. Valencia seemed to always be well positioned to clear their own zone and decongest Bombers forecheck.
Bombers netminder, Liam Donnelly, was assessed a tripping penalty which led to the opening power play goal scored by Nikita Garin at 16:12.
Valencia converted three unanswered goals in the first and added two more in the second to make it 5-0. DiMarino made a stalwart save in the second to facilitate the shutout effort.
El Paso Rhinos 4, Utah Outliers 1
Arguably the most physical match of the day involved two divisional heavy weights in the Rhinos and Outliers. El Paso met some resistance in the first but a duo of power play goals moved the Rhinos to their 78th point of the season.
Jacob Robinson was at the helm of production with three points in a goal and two helpers. Sawyer Schmidt won his 13th game of the season and nearly had a shutout making 21 saves. Rhinos Marcus Ohlsson-Ornelius opened the scoring at 21:35 but a motivated Utah squad
Continued making dangerous zone entries until eventually they tied it.
Jakub Lelek was the only Outlier to finish with a goal after he roofed a shot from the high slot and beat Schmidt. El Paso regained the lead consistently testing Oscar Wahlgren. Eventually, former Long Beach Bomber, Eric Lovestrand regained the lead for the Rhinos just before the break and clinched the game-winning goal. With the 2-1 lead, El Paso collected two more goals and created the separation necessary for the convincing win. Niklas Ornamarker, one minute into the second, and Jacob Robinson netted the goals.
Fresno Monsters 3, Northern Colorado Eagles 4(SO)
Eric Hildebrand scored in the first shootout at the Showcase to lift the Northern Colorado Eagles over the Fresno Monsters after coming back from a three-goal deficit.
Jon Tagoona gave the Monster a 3-0 lead at 22:15 of the first half but the Eagles stormed back with unanswered goals of their own. It was a difficult second half to bare for Fresno who saw their three goal lead dissipate with goals from the Eagle’s Liam Emery, Tyler Trombly, and Jacob Elik.
The scoreless overtime period spilled into a five-man shootout but Petr Philippov was the only Monsters to score while Sean McMahon got one for NoCo and Hildebrand sunk the dagger.
Dallas Snipers 3(SO), Ontario Avalanche 2
Score sheet TBD
San Diego Sabers 2, Oklahoma City Blazers 4
San Diego Sabers had an initial 2-1 lead in the first half but weren’t able to hold on as the Blazers singed them with three straight tallies in the second half.
Andrei Vasile had two goals to lead in goals while Michael Power and Jordan Sgro tied them with two points. Caleb Travis scored first for San Diego at 23:50 and the Blazers responded at 11:07 when Sgro forced one past Ludwig Nordqvist.
San Diego took their second on a late-frame goal at 1:56 of the first to take a 2-1 lead into halftime. The Blazers opened the second half on a short-handed goal to tie it up before they eventually overtook the game.
Vasile found both his goals and sandwiched Noah Henslee’s goals to reach 4-2.
Pueblo Bulls 9, Bellingham Blazers 1
One of Pueblo’s biggest wins of the season came in the Showcase as they routed the Bellingham Blazers 9-1, in the lopsided victory.
John Henderson and Milan Breczko each scored twice and Ryan Wirth led with four points. The Bulls were hard-pressed to make a good first impression and did so with five unanswered goals in the first half.
Bellingham’s Ethan Dunnett was the only goal scorer. Four more goals from Pueblo were added including two consecutive power plays. t
It is worth noting that it was Bellingham’s second game of the day and just couldn’t muster up the same effort from the morning against CPJHL.
