Junior Blues look to flip the script in 2012

With the way that the year of 2011 ended for head coach Joe Dibble and his Springfield Junior Blues, I don't think there was any team in the NAHL that could have been happier when the calander hit 2012.

Well, that statement could just be a little bit bold, but still, you get the point.

The Junior Blues had one of the best offensive attacks throughout the first half of the 2011-2012 NAHL season, but that didn't help them out much during this current five game stretch.

Springfield finished the calendar year of 2011 with five straight losses, including two straight shutouts to the hands of Peter Traber and the Topeka RoadRunners. The Jr. Blues, who fell to 12-20-1 (25 points) on the season following the 3-0 loss on Saturday night, remain in fourth place in the MidWest division.

During the current five game stretch for head coach Joe Dibble and his squad, the team has scored just five goals. Springfield hasn't scored in it's last 128 minutes and 37 seconds on the ice--the team's last goal was a short-handed goal by Ruslan Pedan during the third-period of a 3-2 loss to St. Louis on December 18.

Also, the team has gone over four games now without a goal at even strength (271 minutes; 17 seconds), and the last one they scored came from Chris Sitler at 8:43 of the second period in a game on December 16 against the Bandits as well, during a 6-1 loss.

But let's just hope that that stretch is over. The calendar officially switched over from 2011 to 2012 on Sunday morning at midnight, and a new year, means new hope and hopefully a fresh start with this squad overcoming a lot of adversity.

Entering 2012 and the second half of the season, the Junior Blues are currently right there in the playoff mix in the MidWest division. The NAHL playoffs' consist of four teams from each division--and right now Springfield currently holds a comfortable lead over the last place Chicago Hitmen (by 12 points).

The team still has an entire three months left on the season, and with the potential that this team has, I still have a lot of hope for a very good ending to this season. For those of you who don't know, despite what we seen these past five games, the Blues are just one of six teams with three guys with atleast thirty-points, and they are currently in the top ten in goals-per-game in the entire NAHL.

Both Kyle Cook and Chris Sitler own 33 points each, which ties them for the team lead--and Josef Pontasch has 32 points. Cook leads the team in goals with 16 total--while Sitler and Pontasch are tied for the team lead in assists with 21 apiece. Cook, Sitler, and Pontasch have shown that they have the ability to score the puck at any point-and-time that they have the puck.

Aside from the "Big Three", the Blues also have two more guys on the roster with atleast twenty-four points. Gavin Tufte has quietly tallied 25 points with eight goals and seventeen assists, and Ethan Nauman has put up 24 with ten goals himself.

As for the men between the pipes, the goalies haven't been all that bad lately. Both Tyler Parks and Connor Girard have been splitting time--and while Parks has better numbers on paper, they have basically split the time job 50-50. The goalies this season have allowed ninety-eight goals thus far.

This team has the potential to go anywhere that they want to--but focus will be the key. If there is one thing for sure, the team will need to get something going at home. We are currently 6-11-1 at home--and 6-9-0 on the road.

The Junior Blues still have a lot of time to write a miraculous ending to this season, but as the famous saying goes...only time will tell. Let's go Blues.