Affton, MO – The Peoria Mustangs made their final trip of the season down I-55 to Affton, MO this weekend to play the 7th and 8th games of the season series with their foes from Arch City. The Mustangs used strong performances on both sides of the puck to take their fourth straight weekend sweep in the NA3HL Central Division. The weekend sweep improves the Mustangs to 25-9-3 on the season and sole possession of second place in the Central Division.
Saturday: PEO 8 – STL 2
The Mustangs opened the scoring a little less than five minutes into the opening frame just as their first power play of the evening was concluding. The Mustangs cycled the puck in the offensive end and Chris Kondiles skated down the right wing board and slipped a pass to Massimo Polistina. Polistina tipped a pass to a streaking Hubert Guzy who received the puck and whistled a shot past Jr. Blues goaltender Espen Reager scored at 3:54 of the opening period for a quick 1-0 advantage. Peoria doubled their lead less than two minutes later when Perry Lagatuz Collected his 10th goal of the season assisted by Massimo Polistina at 5:42 of the opening frame for the 2-0 Mustangs lead. St. Louis answered, making it a 2-1 contest late in the period when Jack Dapron found a seam and slipped the puck past Joe Ambroffi cutting the Mustangs lead in half at 13:39 of the first period.
Mustangs forward Jake Ratner rounded out the first period scoring as he notched his 6th goal of the season from Ethan Chesney and Connor Henderson. Ratner’s goal proved to hold up as the eventual game winner. Peoria added a pair of second period tallies as Lagatuz netted his second goal of the game and 11th of the season, Polistina collected an assist on the goal for his 3rd point of the game. Ratner also added his second goal of the game and 7th of the season just prior to the midway point of the period. It was also Ratner’s second goal of the contest; Justin Hubble was credited with the assist. Through 40 minutes of action, the Mustangs held a commanding 5-1 lead on the Jr. Blues.
The third period was much of the same as the Mustangs netted a trio of goals before the 10 minute mark of the final frame. Thomas Kayner netted a power play tally for his 10th goal of the season, and Ethan Chesney followed up with a special team’s goal of his own just 57 seconds later increasing the Mustangs lead to 7-1. Polistina rounded out the scoring at 9:45 of the final frame with his 7th goal of the season, giving the Mustangs an 8-1 lead.
The Jr Blues added a tally late as Duke Boccardi popped a rebound past Ambroffi at 18:49 of the period for the eventual 8-2 final score.
Joe Ambroffi stopped 22 of 24 shots faced in the win. The win, Ambroffi’s second straight, improves him to 7-5-1 on the season.
Sunday: PEO 5 – STL 1
The teams skated to a scoreless opening 20 minutes before the Mustangs netted four second period tallies, three of which came on the man advantage. Peoria’s first tally of the period came less than 5 minutes into the middle frame when Tristan Trudel hammered the puck past Jr. Blues goaltender Ethan Jourden for the 1-0 lead at 4:07 of the middle frame.
Jake Ratner added the game winner just 4:09 later when he pounced on a rebound and lit the lamp at 8:16 of the second period for a 2-0 Mustangs advantage.
Peoria added a pair of tallies later in the period as Thomas Kayner notched his 11th of the season, and Massimo Polistina netted his 8th goal of the campaign. Through 40 minutes of action the Mustangs held a 4-0 advantage. Mustangs forward Jentzen Kaebel added an insurance tally in the third period notching his first career NA3HL goal at 10:21 of the third period and the 5th goal of the game for Peoria.
St. Louis added a goal late as Michael Kennedy found the back of the net, beating Andrew Doran at 19:22 of the third period for the eventual 5-1 final score. Doran turned aside 24 of 25 shots faced in the contest. The win, Doran’s 5th straight, improves him to 6-1-0 on the season.
By The Numbers:
-Joe Ambroffi has collected back-to-back wins for the third time this season.
-Massimo Polistina earned a new career high for points in a game with 4, 1G and 3A in Saturday night’s game.
-Jake Ratner collected his third career multi-goal game with a pair of goals in Saturday’s contest.
-With a pair of goals Saturday, Perry Lagatuz has collected a point in 5 straight games.
-With the win on Sunday, Andrew Doran has reigned victorious in his last 5 starts and allowed 6 goals in that span.
-Jentzen Kaebel earned his first career NA3HL goal in Sunday’s 5-1 victory.
-The Mustangs netted 3 power play goals in the second period.
-Ethan Chesney has 4 straight multi-point outings.
What’s Ahead:
The Mustangs return home and welcome the Oregon Tradesmen to the Owens Center for a pair of games February 4th and 5th. Friday night’s contest is scheduled for a 7:00 pm CST face off, and Saturday night’s game gets underway at 6:30 pm CST. All games can be viewed on HockeyTV.
