Tampa Bay Juniors - USPHL

Wesley Chapel - The Tampa Bay Juniors Premier Team went a perfect 5-0 verse Northern teams this past weekend at the USPHL Tampa Showcase. The showcase, put on by Tampa, primarily had the Florida and Southeast Divisions facing teams from northern divisions.

Tampa opened the showcase facing Midwest East division leaders Fort Wayne Spacemen. Tampa would pull out a 5-2 win with a 3 goal second period. Noah Weisjahn, Tyler Cullen, Jake Duhaime, Ryan Walsh and Jonah Mortenson would all score for TBJ with Mortenson adding 2 assist. Blake Mons stopped 18 of 20 shots for the win.

Game 2 TBJ would face Mid-Atlantic Division’s Jersey Hitmen. Led by Beau Courneya’s Hattrick, Tampa would win 8-2! Alek Ostankovics would add 2 goals with Jack Fleer, Jackson Studebaker and Connor Nelson rounding out the scoring. Onni Taskila and Joe Miller combined for 16 saves.

Game 3 TBJ played Midwest Divisions 2nd place team Minnesota Squatch. Both teams combined for 80 shots on goal in this up and down fast pace game.  Both teams traded off first period power play goals with Mortenson netting his 2nd of the weekend. The second period saw the same thing as each team once again scored on power plays with Courneya getting his 4th of the showcase. After a scoreless 3rd period the teams went to overtime. Both teams had chances in a wild o.t. and just as it looked to go to a shootout Nelson would score the game winner with 3 seconds left in o.t. Mons stopped 37 of 38 for his 2nd win of the showcase.

Game 4 Tampa would play Great Lakes powerhouse Metro Jets. After a scoreless 1st period, Mortenson once again would get TBJ on the board first blowing around the Metro defensemen. Duhaime would extend the lead with his 2nd goal of the showcase before Metro would cut it in half before the 3rd period. TBJ would hold off Metro in the third with Fleer, Mortenson and Nelson scoring to give TBJ the 5-1 victory! Taskila stopped 37 of 38 shots for the win.

TBJ would close out the showcase facing another Midwest team in the Minnesota Blue Ox. The Ox would get on the board first with a goal in the 1st period. The game stayed that way as the Blue Ox goalie kicked out 42 saves. Finally in the 3rd period Nelson would get TBJ on the board to tie it and less than 2 minutes later Nelson netted the game winner with his 5th of the showcase. Mons stopped 25 of 26 shots for his 3rd win of the weekend.

Elite team goes 1-2-1

TBJ Elite team played well in its showcase but could only muster 8 goals in the 4 games going 1-2-1. Tampa would open the showcase with a tough win over Columbia 3-1 as Columbia’s goalie made 47 saves on 50 shots. Josh skipper, Ricky Bone break and Joey Cullen would score for Tampa.

Game 2 TBJ would lose a tough one to the Charlotte Rush 3-2. After falling behind 3-0, Tyler MacIndoe and Garrett Bagnall would score to pull Tampa within one but couldn’t get the tying goal in the 3rd.

Tampa would drop another tough game to the Jersey Hitmen 3-2 in a shootout. Ari Blatt and Brody Sheets scored for Tampa.

Tampa closed out the showcase losing another close game 2-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes. Ethan Curran would score the lone goal.

Florida Premier Division Has Strong Showing

The Florida Premier Division went 20-6 verse teams from other Divisions. Tampa led the showcase going 5-0 followed by Palm Beach going 4-0.

The Tampa Bay Juniors are back in action January 20th with both teams playing the first place Florida Eels. Games are 5:30 Elite and 8:00 Premier at AdventHealth Center Ice.