Junior Blues offense stays hot in St. Louis, beat Bandits 4-1

Chris Sitler netted two goals, Gabe Antoni dominated between the pipes once again, and the Springfield Junior Blues did no looking back on Sunday afternoon as they defeated the second-place Saint Louis Bandits 4-to-1 inside the Hardees Iceplex Center in Chesterfield for the second consecutive day.

Sitler opened up the scoring for the game just 1:18 into the opening period. His goal was the only scoring in the first period as Springfield led 1-0 at the first intermission, but there was twenty-three total shots on goal in the first twenty-minutes, as Springfield fired twelve, while Saint Louis fired eleven.

Springfield had a big second-period as well as they added two more goals onto there lead. Stewart Bell scored a shorthanded goal to put the team up by two before Sitler netted his second goal of the game with less than thirty seconds remaining.

Springfield led 3-0 to open up the third, but a quick Saint Louis goal from Frank Dichiara on the powerplay gave the Bandits slight hope as he scored just 1:37 into the period. With the Junior Blues up two but the Bandits getting numerous opportunities, Mitch Rogge put a wrister in the back of the net at 6:03 of the third and pretty much sucked the air out of the crowd in Chesterfield.

Antoni started his fourth straight game between the pipes today, and once again impressed. He saved 30-of-31 Bandits' shots taken, and played the entire sixty-minutes. As for the Bandits goalie, Spencer Viele got the day off and Tyler Green got the start. He recieved the lost as he saved 25-of-29 Jr. Blues shots.

Springfield went 0-for-6 on the powerplay today--while Saint Louis converted just once out of seven chances. The Bandits once again lost the game despite outshooting the Junior Blues 31-to-29.

Ethan Nauman and Chris Sitler both had two points on the day as Nauman finished with two assists--and Sitler had two goals. Josef Pontasch had one assist in the game while neither MIke Williams nor Kyle Cook scored, but had two shots apiece.

With the weekend sweep of the Bandits, the Junior Blues earned four points and are now in sole-possession of third place in the MidWest following another loss by Coulee Region. The Blues now have 32 points, while Coulee Region still has 28 total.

The Junior Blues will be off next weekend but will return to action on Friday, January 27 when they host Michigan for two games inside the Nelson Center here in Springfield, Illinois.

Saint Louis---------(1) 0 ------(2) 0 -------(3) 1 -----(Final) 1
Springfield----------(1) 1 ------(2) 2 -------(3) 1 -----(Final) 4