Tampa Bay Juniors - USPHL

The Tampa Bay Juniors hosted the Charleston Colonials for a pair of games at both the Premier and Elite levels this past weekend.

Premier- An injury laden TBJ team held on tightly through the first 2 frames, as Stanley Lucas potted his 21st and 22nd goals of the season.  A quick tally from Charleston early in the 3rd period proved to put the game out of reach.

Sunday’s matchup saw a much more energetic start, as TBJ finished the first period with a 2-0 lead. Charleston would respond with 3 of their own through the next period and a half. Stanley Lucas, once again, added a pair of goals to put TBJ in the lead with 90 seconds remaining in the game. A pair of penalties, and the goalie pulled, saw Charleston with a 6-3 man advantage that they capitalized on with 30 seconds remaining in the game to tie it. More than halfway through the OT period, an errant pass banked off of Dan Duncan’s skate and found its way into the back of the Tampa net, cementing an OT loss.

Ryan Bahula became the 2nd youngest player out of nearly 1300 skaters to play a game in the Premier division this season.
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Elite

Saturday’s game was the return of Kevin Holman, and he picked a great time to make his presence felt. With less than 4 minutes left in a game down by 2, Holman added a pair of goals to tie it up. 102 seconds into OT, Holman sprung Tim Ruf for a game winning breakaway goal to cap off a 3 point return to the TBJ roster.

Sunday saw another tightly contested game against the Colonials, and another overtime period.  Goals from Andrew Lewis, Ryan Bahula, and Adam Custable helped TBJ earn a valuable point in the standings by making it to over time, but a quick tally from Charleston prevented a weekend sweep.