Tampa Bay Juniors - USPHL

With some key players missing for both the Premier and Elite TBJ teams, the Tampa squads headed down to Fort Meyers to take on the Division leading Florida Eels.

Premier- The lineup saw a few household names out for the matchup. Namely: Stan Lucas, Derek Walker, Sam Adler, and Paul Flidr. Despite the thin lineup, TBJ handed the Eels only their 9th regulation loss of the season, with 3 of them coming from TBJ.

Aaron Frenkel opened the scoring early, burying his own rebound off assists from Connor Reed and Daniel Duncan. Hogan Williams would add a pair of his own goals in the first period, the first of which coming off of a short handed breakaway. Keegan Johnson extended the lead to 4-0 more than halfway through the second frame, before Jake Court of the Eels found the back of the net. Keegan Johnson scored his second of the period to extend the lead to 4 again.

The third period was almost all Eels, has they rallied back quickly to make it a 5-4 game. With seconds to play and on the penalty kill + extra attacker scenario, Joe Blanchard made a game saving block and cleared the puck out of the zone to seal the victory for Tampa.

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Captain Jonny Scheer was out of the game due to illness, and leading scorer Ronan Keenan earned the call up to Premier for the weekend.

Max Weinstock opened the scoring just 4 seconds after the power play expired at the 14:55 mark of the first period. Weinstock’s goal came off of assists from Tim Ruf and Bradley Burdick.

The Eels would add a tally of their own in the second period, before Corbin Greenway lit the lamp for his first career Junior goal. Greenway’s goal energized the young TBJ squad, as they responded with 2 more goals off the sticks of Justin Walker and Nevada Woodring. The eels managed to add a tally at the end of the period to make it a 4-2 game.

Both teams would trade a few chances in the final frame, with the Eels converting once. Lockdown defensive play from TBJ the rest of the way would secure the win.