Affton, MO – The Peoria Mustangs made their first trip of the season to Affton, MO to square off against the St. Louis Jr. Blues. The Mustangs entered the weekend 3-1-0 head-to-head against their division foe from the Lou. The Mustangs notched two power play goals and a solid outing from Nahuel Veyan to cruise to a 4-1 victory on Saturday night.
Sunday afternoon proved to be the same story for the Mustangs as they only needed one goal to secure the victory. Peoria scored a trio of second period goals and received a stellar outing from Joe Ambroffi as they skated to a 3-0 triumph. The win, Peoria’s 4th straight, improves them to 21-9-3 on the season currently tied for second in the division with the Oregon Tradesmen.
Saturday: PEO 4 – STL 1
The Mustangs opened the score in the late stages of the opening period while skating with the man advantage. With Jr. Blues defenseman Kelly Coldwater serving a cross checking minor the Mustangs cycled the puck in the offensive zone. The Jr. Blues attempted to clear the puck but Jared Wisely slipped down the blue line and held the puck in, back peddled to the high slot and faked a shot. Wisely then sent a pass just above the right circle to Tristan Trudel who received the pass and hammered a shot over the shoulder of Jr. Blues goaltender Espen Reager for the power play tally at 15:24 of the opening period.
Peoria added to their lead in the early stages of the middle frame when Thomas Kayner executed a wraparound attempt and lit the lamp at 5:10 for his 9th goal of the season. Perry Lagatuz added his name to the score sheet in the ladder stages of the middle frame receiving a pass from Trudel and putting the puck in the back of the net at 16:57 for his 7th goal of the campaign. Through 40 minutes of action the Mustangs held a 3-0 advantage.
The Mustangs capped off their scoring in the opening minutes of the final frame, once again while skating on the power play. Trudel took a feed from Kayner, circled behind the net and stuffed the puck under Reager at 5:21 of the final stanza for the 4-0 Mustangs lead.
The Jr. Blues broke their goose egg just past the midway point of the period while skating on the man advantage as Jack Sumner found the back of the net while Jared Wisely was serving a cross checking major at 12:43 of the final frame for the eventual 4-1 final score.
Nahuel Veyan earned the win between the pipes, his 7th in a row stopping 20 of 21 shots faced in the contest. With the victory Veyan improves to 7-1-1 on the season.
Sunday: PEO 3 – STL 0
After playing a scoreless opening 20 minutes of action, the Mustangs finally broke the ice just past the midway point of the second period. Perry Lagatuz scored the eventual game winner at 10:52 of the middle frame, Massimo Polistina added with his 4th of the season at 11:07, and blue liner Hubert Guzy netted his 7th goal of the campaign at 14:27 to cap the scoring for the Mustangs as they skated to the eventual 3-0 final score.
Joe Ambroffi picked up the win between the pipes stopping all 28 shots faced, the win improves Ambroffi to 6-5-1 on the season.
By The Numbers:
-With his win Saturday night, Nahuel Veyan has collected 7 straight victories between the pipes dating back to 11/13/21 at Wausau.
-Tristan Trudel has 5 points in his last 5 outings, 3G and 2A.
-Trudel picked up 2 PPGs in a single game for the second time this season, the last was 10/8/21 vs Wausau.
-With a goal and an assist, Thomas Kayner earned his 9th multi-point outing of the campaign.
-For the 5th straight game (Saturday) head-to-head vs St. Louis, the Mustangs fired 45+ shots on goal.
-Joe Ambroffi picked up his 3rd shutout of the season Sunday afternoon.
-Perry Lagatuz has goals in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.
-With a goal and an assist, Massimo Polistina recorded his second multi-point game of his career.
What’s Ahead:
The Mustangs head back home and welcome the Milwaukee Power to the Owens Center for a pair of games 1/21 and 22nd. Friday night’s game gets underway at 7:00 p.m. CST and the final game of the season series with the teams gets underway at 6:30 Saturday night. All games can be viewed on HockeyTV…
