Saturday, November 19, 2005

Friday night's Michigan juniors roundup

It wasn't a good Friday evening for the five Michigan Junior A teams as all but one lost last night.

The Northern Michigan Black Bears were the lone winners Friday as an overtime goal by captain Steve Kruszewski (pictured right), completing the hat trick, gave the Black Bears a 5-4 win over the Blind River Beavers. Michael Caprio and James Ciotti also scored for Northern Michigan, who got a 23-save outing from goalie Tony Stoehr. The Black Bears are idle tonight, but go on the road to play the Soo Thunderbirds Sunday at 7:00 p.m.

In Plymouth, the Whalers lost to the Kingston Frontenacs, 7-5. Dan Collins had two goals and an assist and goalies Ryan Nie (41:11) and Jeremy Smith (OHL debut, 17:15) combined for 36 saves. Andrew Fournier, Vaclav Meidl and captain John Vigilante also scored for Plymouth, who hosts the Brampton Battalion tonight.

Over in Saginaw, Brampton was down early, but came back to beat the Spirit, 5-3. Ryan McDonough, Garrett Sinfield (first OHL goal) and Jack Combs scored for Saginaw. Francois Thuot made 33 saves in taking the loss. The Spirit play Kingston at home this evening.

Up in Traverse City, the North Stars suffered their first-ever shutout as the Texarkana Bandits defeated Traverse City, 3-0. North Stars goalie Ryan Donovan stopped 25 shots. The two teams meet again tonight.

And down in Mahoning Valley, the host Phantoms beat the Alpena IceDiggers, 5-3, by notching all five goals in the second period. Alpena was up 2-0 on goals by Ricardo Yesue and Anthony McIntyre heading into the second period. Steve Culbertson also tallied for the IceDiggers and goaltender Johnny Morrow made 47 saves. A rematch is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

In CSHL play, it was the Motor City Chiefs 7, Quad City Express 4 and the Peoria Mustangs beat the Michigan Ice Dogs, 7-3. Tonight, Quad City visits the Flint Jr. Generals, the Grand Rapids Jr. Owls travel to Motor City and Peoria moves on to play the Metro Jets.

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