Photo Credit: Noah Markuna
Ambroffi, Yamada stingy in Mustangs weekend sweep
Wausau, WI – The Peoria Mustangs hit the road to North Central Wisconsin this past weekend for their first matchup with the Wausau Cyclones. Peoria began the weekend winning their last four, and left Saturday night with their 6th straight win, and third consecutive weekend sweep. Both nights the Mustangs scored first and never looked back as they outscored the Cyclones 10-2 on the weekend. With the pair of victories on the weekend Peoria improves to 11-5-0 and remain in third place in the Central Division.
Friday: PEO 5 – WAU 2
Friday night the Mustangs opened the scoring and never looked back as they cruised to a 5-2 victory at Marathon Park Ice Arena. Peoria got a trio of goals in the first period and the Cyclones attempted a comeback, but Peoria slammed the door with a pair of goals for that 5-2 final score.
The Mustangs opened the scoring early in the opening period of play while skating on a power play. With Cyclones defenseman Blake Neill’s hooking penalty winding down the Mustangs won a draw in their attacking zone. The puck squirted to SP Merck who slipped a pass to Ethan Chesney along the right-wing boards. Chesney saw Tristan Trudel cutting to the left circle and sent a pass to the left circle, Trudel received the pass and snapped a shot that blazed by the blocker of Cyclones goaltender Ryan Burke and into the back of the net for the quick 1-0 Mustangs edge at 3:26 of the opening stanza.
Peoria added to their lead in the ladder stages of the frame when Perry Lagatuz stuffed a rebound from a Joey Rancilio shot under Burke for the 2-0 Mustangs lead at 16:12 of the opening period. The Mustangs tripled their lead with under a minute to go when Jaycob Bland netted the second power play goal of the period at 19:02 for the 3-0 Mustangs advantage.
The Cyclones clawed to within on in the middle period, netting their first goal of the contest at the 4:10 mark of the period, Gage Vierzba collected his 8th goal of the season cutting the Peoria lead to 3-1. Wausau climbed to within one late in the period when Vierzba converted on the power play at 14:22 for the 3-2 score.
The Mustangs once again drew their lead to two in the closing minutes of the second period when Bland collected his second power play tally of the night at 18:53 of the second period and a 4-2 Mustangs advantage. Peoria added to their lead in the opening minutes of the third period when Tristan Trudel took a feed from Henry Griffin and blasted the puck past Burke and into the back of the net for the eventual 5-2 final score at 3:16 of the final period.
Joe Ambroffi earned the win between the pipes for the Mustangs stopping 29 of 31 shots faced in the contest, the win, Ambroffi’s 3rd straight improves the netminder to 5-1-0 on the season.
Saturday: PEO 5 – WAU 0
Saturday night the teams skated a scoreless opening period before the Mustangs dominated the final 40 minutes of play. Peoria score early in the second period and never looked back as they claimed their 6thstraight win and earned their 3rd straight weekend sweep with the 5-0 victory.
Peoria collected the game winner just 32 seconds into the second period when newcomer Addy Powell raced off the bench for a change, the puck deflected off a body in front and sailed out to the high slot, Powell never broke stride, wound up, and fired the shot past Cyclones goaltender Owen Reeve and into the back of the net for the 1-0 Mustangs lead at :32 of the middle frame.
The Mustangs added a pair of goals the first coming 1:58 after the opening goal when Ethan Chesney netted his 11th goal of the campaign for the 2-0 Mustangs advantage. Tristan Trudel added to the lead at the 13:56 mark of the period with a power play tally, giving Peoria a 3-0 lead heading into the second intermission.
Peoria capped the scoring in the final minute of regulation, first with an empty net goal from Jaycob Bland at 19:06 and Trudel with his second of the night at the 19:43 mark for the eventual 5-0 final score.
Kason Yamada picked up the victory between the pipes stopping all 28 shots directed his way, the win, Yamada’s 4th in a row improves the Bloomington, IL native to 4-0-0 on the season.
Stable Notes:
-Kason Yamada has appeared in 7 total games for the Mustangs (2 in 2019/20) and is 6-0-0 in a Mustang’s uniform.
-Forward Tristan Trudel had 4 goals on the weekend, 3 of the 4 came via the power play.
-Forward Jaycob Bland has collected at least a point in 8 straight games dating back to 10/7 vs Granite City.
-The Mustangs picked up their third consecutive weekend sweep, their second away from the Owens Center. The Mustangs have earned 4 sweeps this season and only been swept once.
-With the weekend wins, the Mustangs have a season high 6-game winning streak heading into their final home series of the 2022 calendar year.
-The Mustangs outscored the Cyclones 10-2 on the weekend series.
What’s Ahead:
The Mustangs return home for a pair of games as they welcome the St. Louis Jr. Blues to the Owens Center for a Saturday, Sunday series the 19th and 20th of November. Saturday night’s game is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. CST puck drop, and Sunday is scheduled for a 1:15 p.m. start time. Saturday night is the second and final Peoria Mustangs Stuff-A-Bus game, with fans that bring a nonperishable canned food item receiving a gift from City Link as well as free admission to the Saturday night game. If you can’t make it out to the Owens Center both games can be viewed on HockeyTV or by following along on Mustangs social media.
