Fear leads Jr. Blues to come-from-behind shootout win

Evan Fear made 37 saves in a shootout win on Wednesday night.

Springfield Jr. Blues 2 @ Janesville Jets 1 (SO) – The Springfield Jr. Blues edged out a last-minute shootout win in Janesville in the lone NAHL game on Wednesday night. Trailing for most of the game, the Jr. Blues scored the game-tying goal with 39 seconds left and then took the extra point in a shootout, helping their chances to capture the #3 seed in the division. Springfield got shootout goals from Nikita Kozyrev and Brandon Puricelli, along with 37 saves from Evan Fear in picking up the extra point in the standings. Fear swatted away both of Janesville's shootout attempts. Janesville controlled play at both ends of the ice but had nothing to show for it after one period. The Jets finally broke through on Tanner Polglaze's power-play goal at 2:46 of the second. The Beloit native and Michigan Tech recruit got assists from Sam Renlund and Simon Sagissor on the play. The Jets continued to apply pressure, but Fear was a brick wall in front of the net. He made two big saves in the third period to keep it a one-goal game, and then saw his team tie it late. The Junior Blues caught the Jets on a line change, and Nick Schultz fired a shot past goalie Garrett Nieto for the equalizer with 39 seconds to play. Carter Ekberg nearly won the game twice for the Jets in overtime. He saw Fear make a great save midway through the overtime to deny him and then hit the pipe with 11 seconds left. Janesville got 25 saves from Nieto in the loss. Boxscore