Tampa Bay Juniors - USPHL

Saturday

Elite: TBJ 5, Charleston 0

In their first road contest of the season, the Tampa Bay Juniors Elite defeated the Charleston Colonials, 5-0. The two teams played a scoreless first period. Ryan Bahula broke the ice at the 8:43 mark of the second period with his league-leading 9th goal of the season. Adam Custable tallied his 3rd goal of the season 14:46 into the second to double the TBJ lead.

The Juniors ran away with the game in the third period. Goals from Justin Walker, Filip Kuba, and Jack Fleer helped the Juniors cruise to their first shutout win of the season. Evan Spinella stopped all 23 shots to pick up his third win of the season. Adam Custable finished with a goal and 2 assists and Nash Cobbs notched 2 helpers.

Premier: TBJ 7, Charleston 1

The Juniors Premier team came out flying to defeat the Charleston Colonials, 7-1. Connor Reed scored just 1:18 into the game and the Juniors did not look back. Aaron Frenkel netted his 5th goal of the season to give TBJ a 2-0 lead at 7:39 of the first. Paul Flidr found the back of the net at 12:59 to grow the lead to 3. Tampa outshot Charleston 22-4 in a perfect first period.

Charleston’s Chris Curtis gave the Colonials a glimmer of hope 1:48 into the second. Laz Kaebel restored TBJ’s three-goal lead with a bullet one-time from the left point. Derek Walker and Keegan Johnson scored just 66 seconds apart at the end of the second to give the Juniors a 6-1 lead after 2. Aaron Frenkel scored his 2nd of the game and 6th of the season at 8:46 of the third. Cade Kujawski stopped 25/26 shots to pick up his 4th win of the season. Aaron Frenkel (2 G, 1 A), Laz Kaebel (1 G, 2 A), Connor Reed (1 G, 1A), and Stanley Lucas (2 A) all finished with multiple points.

Sunday

Elite: TBJ 6, Charleston 3

The TBJ Elite team completed their season sweep of Charleston with a 6-3 win on Sunday morning. The Juniors fell behind for the first time this season when the Colonials opened the scoring at 11:50 of the first. A skillful, individual goal by Tyler Cullen at 18:43 of the first evened the game up going into the first intermission. Tampa was able to ease the tension in the second. Ryan Bahula, Adam Custable, and Martin Raynov all found the back of the net in the second. Bahula and Custable’s goals came just 24 seconds apart.

The teams traded 2 goals a piece in the third period. Charleston made things interesting, scoring 2:30 into the third. Jake Duhaimed answered with his 5th goal of the season less than 2 minutes later.  Charleston brought the deficit to 2 again with a goal at the 7:32 mark. Justin Walker’s 2nd  goal of the weekend put the game to bed at 16:30 of the third. Ethan Leigh made 18 saves and improved to 3-0-0.

Thirteen different players recorded a point as the Juniors continued their perfect start to the season.

​Premier: TBJ 5, Charleston 4 (SO)

The Premier team completed a weekend sweep of the Colonials by prevailing 5-4 in a game that was pushed to the shootout. The Juniors looked ready to fly again with Aaron Frenkel scoring the opener just 1:59 in. Charleston responded at 11:09 of the first to even the score. Aaron Frenkel buried his 2nd  of the period and 4th of the weekend at the 17:41 mark to give the Juniors a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.  Charleston snatched the momentum and lead in the second. The Colonials scored at 8:06 and 9:17 of the period to take a 3-2 advantage. Paul Flidr tied the game up again with 37 seconds left in the middle period.

Roco Selivanov scored his second goal of the season 2:02 into the third period. The Juniors were able to hold a 4-3 lead for 12 minutes until Charleston evened the game up once again. Sixty minutes proved not enough to settle the Sunday matinee matchup. Tampa had a 4-on-3 power play during the 5-minute overtime but were unable to find the winner. The Colonials held a 1-0 advantage after the first 2 rounds of the shootout. Down to their last opportunity, Aaron Frenkel kept the game alive and Mateusz Wawrzkiewicz notched the winner in the 4th round of the shootout.

The Premier team improved to 5-1-0 on the season. Lane Skon made 23 saves on 27 shots to pick up an emphatic first win with the Juniors. TBJ mustered 49 shots on goal in the game and 96 total for the weekend. Laz Kaebel finished with 6 points (1 goal, 5 assists) on the weekend. Connor Reed, Aaron Frenkel, and Kaebel were the lone Juniors with multi-point games.

Photo By: Earth Life Studios