The Milwaukee Power were at home last weekend for their season finale series against the St. Louis Jr. Blues. The Power had faced the Blues in St. Louis the prior weekend and swept the Blues on their home ice for the first time in the Power’s history. Both games were close though as the Power won by only one goal.
On Friday night the Power would start Spencer Northway in net and the Blues would go with Espen Reager in their end. Milwaukee would open the scoring in the first, just shy of the halfway point, as Nate Stone recorded his 15th tally of the season with Odin Klebba logging the lone assist. St. Louis would respond nearly five minutes later as Russell Hess tied the game. Less then a minute later Patrick Toomey would put Milwaukee back on top with assists from Dominic Martinetti and Konrad Clements. Toomey’s stick would stay hot as he scored again nearly four minutes later to stretch the lead to two with an assist from Mason Ausmus. Both sides would take penalties late in the period that would carry over to the second.
After serving his two minutes in the sin bin to start the second, Max Erstad would score his 16th of the season nearly nine minutes into the frame with assists coming from Stone and Clements. The rest of the second was relatively quiet apart from both sides taking late penalties again. Like Erstad the period prior, Jack Wojnowski would start the third in the penalty box and then netted his first goal of the season through traffic, Erstad and Stone were credited with the assists. The rest of the third was quiet except for a penalty taken late by St. Louis. Northway picked up his 11th win of the season stopping 22 out of 23 shots faced. It was Reagers 11th loss as he stopped 38 of 43 shots.
Master Printwear 3 Stars:
3rd Star – #3 Konrad Clements
2nd Star – #21 Nate Stone
1st Star – #23 Patrick Toomey
Coach’s Pub ‘N’ Grill Hard Hat Player of the Game – #18 Tommy Kundinger
The Power would put Northway back in net for Saturday’s season finale and the Blues would start Ethan Jourden. The first half of the opening frame was quiet but the Blues would finally open the scoring 13 and a half minutes in on a Jack Dapron goal. During the stoppage after the score, Jourden was forced to exit the game after taking a rocketing shot from Marshall Walker right to the mask that left him shaken up right before St. Louis scored and Reager would have to come into the game for the remainder of the night. The Blues would cary their first lead of the weekend into the locker room.
The second period was full of penalties and most them were taken by the Blues. This led to the beginning of the end of their lead. Five minutes in Toomey would score a power play goal, assisted by Stone and Clements. 10 minutes later Walker would score on the man advantage with an assist from Erstad to grab the lead. Three minutes later Garrett Wilderman would score his first goal of the season and it also came on the power play, assisted by Ausmus and Erstad. In the final 10 seconds of the frame Erstad would score on the power play with an assist from Michael Dalaly to make it a three goal lead. Four goals on the power play in 20 minutes nearly equaled 25% of Milwaukee’s power play output for 46 games this season.
The Blues started the third period on the penalty kill but the pk unit managed to stop the bleeding. At the halfway mark St. Louis would add a power play goal of their own coming from Brodie Appelbaum to cut the deficit to two. Just 30 seconds later Dalaly would score the only even strength goal of the night for Milwaukee to set the score to its eventual final of 5-2, Toomey and Ausmus were credited with assists. In his 12th win of the season Northway stopped 21 of 23 shots faced which completed the Power third sweep of the Blues this season. Reager would be given his 12th loss after coming into the game in relief of Jourden do to injury. The season series finished with Milwaukee winning seven of the eight meetings.
Master Printwear 3 Stars:
3rd Star – #12 Mason Ausmus
2nd Star – #17 Michael Dalaly
1st Star – #8 Max Erstad
Coach’s Pub ‘N’ Grill Hard Hat Player of the Game – #29 Jack Wojnowski
