Saints Score Four Unanswered, Top Thunder
September 17, 2016 - United States Hockey League (USHL)
Dubuque Fighting Saints News Release
CRANBERRY TWP, Pa. - In a rematch of the two Eastern Conference finalists from last season, the Dubuque Fighting Saints continued the winning ways against the Bloomington Thunder. The final game of the Fall Classic ended in Dubuque's favor, with a win of 4-1 on Saturday morning at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.
The Saints surrendered the first goal to Jake Durflinger early in the first period, but rebounded with four unanswered goals in the win. They were steadied by a tremendous four-point effort by defenseman *Patrick Kudla*, and solid netminding from starter *Jaxon Castor*, who made 30 saves in the game.
Castor and the penalty killers washed out all seven power play opportunities against. One of those chances was a 5-on-3 chance for over 90 seconds. Castor made several big saves on netmouth scrambles, which kept the Thunder off the board aside from the early goal.
*Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup* continued his productive preseason with the tying goal, his third. *Erik Ullman* teed up Schmidt-Svejstrup with a pass in his wheelhouse, and the one-timer flew past the outstretched blocker of starter Gabriel Mollot-Hill.
The scoring continued 90 seconds later with a brotherly connection. *Isaac Theisen* stole the puck away from William Fallstrom and raced down the ice in a two-on-one break with *Colin Theisen*. The younger Theisen pushed the puck home into the open net to put the Fighting Saints on top, and eventually, for good.
Mollot-Hill's day came to an end after *Jacob Hamacher* received a bit of puck luck on a power play rush for his first goal in a Fighting Saints uniform. His shot from just inside the blue line ricocheted off of Bloomington defenseman Wyatt Kalnyuk and into the net to make it 3-1 Saints.
*Austin Rueschhoff* completed the productive day on offense with an empty-net goal to seal it up.
Logan Halladay played out the final 40 minutes and stopped all 12 shots he saw.
The regular season is almost here! The Fighting Saints will travel to The Stable to take on the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders on Saturday, September 24 at 7:05 p.m. Join the action on the Fighting Saints radio network, Dubuque's Super Hits 106.1 FM, or on the USHL's streaming video partner, FASTHockey.
Tickets for the home opener on September 30, presented by American Trust, are on sale now! Check out all of the action against the Green Bay Gamblers, starting at 7:35 p.m., by calling the box office at 563.583.6880, or by going online to DubuqueFightingSaints.com.
• Discuss this story on the United States Hockey League message board...
United States Hockey League Stories from September 17, 2016
- Steel Grab Wild 7-6 Win Over Cedar Rapids - Chicago Steel
- Saints Score Four Unanswered, Top Thunder - Dubuque Fighting Saints
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
