Jr. Blues come from behind to win lone Sunday clash

Springfield 6 @ Chicago 5 – In a fitting wrap-up to the third and final game of a three game set in Chicago against the Hitmen, the Springfield Jr. Blues scored three, 3rd period goals to edge Chicago 6-5 on Sunday.

Chicago took advantage with a goal at just 1:39 of the game from Sean Reynolds.  The Jr. Blues stormed back to score three unanswered goals to make the score 3-1 at the first intermission.  Stewart Bell took a pass from down low and scored in front of the net between the circles to make it 1-1.  Just over ten minutes later the Blues scored again on Joseph Pontasch’s redirect of a shot by Kevin Walters.  Late in the period, Chris Sitler gave the Blues a 3-1 lead.

In the 2nd period, Chicago scored four unanswered goals in the space of two minutes and twelve seconds to take a two goal lead into the second intermission. Matt Cessna made it 3-2.  Just :16 seconds later Shigenobu Kakudate tied the game at 3-3.  Just :14 seconds after that, Chcago took the lead on Zach Schrotenboer’s unassisted marker.  To finish the period off, Anthony Annunziato scored to make it 5-3 and give Chicago what they thought was a safe lead.  However, as the second period belonged to Chicago, the third period was all Jr. Blues.

Down 5-3 going into the 3rd period,  Chicago continued to dominate until Ethan Nauman scored at 11:34 to make it 5-4.  Nauman scored against on a rebound shot at 16:15 to tie the game at 5 – 5.  Then Kyle Cook scored with less than three minutes remaining on an assist by Mitch Rogge to round out the scoring and give the Jr. Blues a hard fought win to take two out of three from Chicago on the weekend. Nauman led the Jr. Blues with two goals, both in the 3rd period, while Sean Reynolds and Shigenobu Kakudate each had a goal and two assists for the Hitmen. Boxscore