Another Chicago Fire
November 12, 2010 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Springfield Jr. Blues News Release
What an inspiring sight! Coach Andy Maher is back with the team and on the bench tonight. He will be with us all weekend and we hope the Jr. Blues respond with positive wins tonight and the next two games with Traverse City. The guys are excited to have Coach back, and I think everyone else affiliated with the team is happy as well. It's been a long time since he went home to spend time with his ailing father. This would be a good time for the Blues to kick some tail and take some names.
Tonight is Robert Morris University appreciation night, and we look to have a good crowd. This is a big weekend with Veteran's appreciation night, and Saturday will have the Cammo Jersey auction. What a weekend this would be with three wins and a packed house each night!
The highlight of course is Coach Maher being back on the bench with the team, but other things are happening as well. Ethan Nauman is alone in second place in the NAHL scoring race. He has 30 points on 11 goals and 19 assists, and trails first place by six points. Jack Callahan is the top defense scorer in the league with 24 points. Smilin' Jack has 4 goals and 20 assists so far, and who could forget his two winning overtime goals? He is Captain of the team and a real leader for the younger guys to look up to. Mike Fallon is also on the league scoring top 20 with 22 points on 6 goals and 16 assists. It is fun to watch Mike and Chris Sitler on the ice together, as they can be explosive.
Dan Foss, a former Wisconsin team owner has joined the Jr. Blues in Sales and Marketing. He brings an enormous amount of enthusiasm into the fold that is highly contagious. We look for good things to happen as he gets his feet on the ground. We want to rid Springfield of the adage that the Jr. Blues are the "best kept secret in town."
Now that high school football is winding down in Central Illinois the Jr. Blues expect to improve on the 23rd ranking in attendance average for home games. Averaging 586 per game puts the club in the lower echelon of the attendance averages, but that is something we have been used to during the high school football season. While we still have a couple of area teams marching toward state playoffs, we fully expect to see more fans in the seats in the coming games.
It's game time Blues fans!
It was nip and tuck through the first half of period one with both teams up and down the ice. Things changed in a hurry as Clay Blankenship scored his first Jr. Blues goal at 13:46 gone in the first. He got a little help from his friends as Ethan Scherer and Garret Williams were credited with the assists. Roughly three and one half minutes later the good guys scored again as Mike Fallon made a sweet pass to Taylor Wolfe and he banged it home to make the score 2 - 0 Springfield. Again, just over two minutes later Chris Sitler elevated the puck into the right corner of the goal to make the score now 3 - 0. Sitler was assisted by Mike Fallon and Shayne McLaughlin. That's how the first period ended with the Blues up 3 - 0 and momentum going into the locker room for the first intermission.
Period two is on the way and Let's Go Blues!
Chicago started the scoring in period two with a goal at the 45 second mark, but the Jr. Blues answered at 12:29 to put the lead back to three at 4 - 1. Taylor Wolfe scored his second goal of the night with an assist from T.J. Poganski. That's how it went during the second until the final minute when Ross Andersen and Ethan Nauman skated into the offensive zone. Both players passed the puck and when Andersen got it back he sent a bullet into the net to make the score 5 - 1. Ethan Scherer was credited with his second assist of the game along with Ethan Nauman, and that's how it stood going into the locker room for the second intermission.
The Blues look like they got the boost they needed with Coach Maher returning to the bench. They look like the Sunday game in Port Huron is long in the past and though it may not be forgotten, it is certainly put into perspective and context. It doesn't look at this point in the game like Chicago will get their 6th win of the season. Both teams have played hard, but the Jr. Blues have this game in hand after two periods. As Yogi Berra has said, and it applies to all sports games, "It ain't over till it's over." Period three is up next. Again, Let's go Blues!
Period three was similar to the second as Chicago came out and scored at the 3:22 mark to get the game back to a three goal margin, 5 - 2. A break away goal by Mike Fallon essentially broke the back of the Hitmen just 24 seconds later and made it 6 - 2. The scoring was completed at the 17:26 mark as Ross Anderson was given a penalty shot after his attempted break away was interrupted by a hard take down. Ross took the penalty shot and threw the puck five hole to put the Blues up 7 - 2.
All in all it was a good game for Blues fans, even though it was before a sparse crowd. The win gets the Jr. Blues back to within a game of the .500 mark and brings Traverse City into town for the rest of the weekend. Coach Andy Maher did make a difference in his return to the bench, and he is about as relaxed as I've seen him over the last two plus years. A win on Veterans Appreciation Night will put the team even at .500, 13 - 13- 1, and a win on Saturday night would put us a game over headed into the Thanksgiving break.
What more can we say except; "Way to go Jr. Blues! Way to go!"
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North American Hockey League Stories from November 12, 2010
- Lucky 13! Tornado top IceRays on Friday, 3-1 - Texas Tornado
- Kruger Backstops Tornado Over Corpus Christi, 3-1 - Corpus Christi IceRays
- Stars fall in Springfield, 3-1 - Traverse City North Stars
- Another Chicago Fire - Springfield Jr. Blues
- North Stars Adjust Roster - Traverse City North Stars
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