Jets dominate, strike oil in Wooster, hang 10-spot in decisive road win
WOOSTER, Ohio – The Metro Jets exploded for six goals in the second period in toying with and defeating the Wooster Oilers 10-1 Tuesday afternoon at the Alice Noble Ice Arena.
Likewise, the MJDP also won, getting a late Seth Francois goal to snap a 2-2 tie and down the Fort Wayne Spacemen 3-2 at the SportONE/Parkview Icehouse.
Both teams now increase their leads at the top of their respective divisions in the USPHL – the Jets in the Great Lakes by three points over the Toledo Cherokee and the MJDP in the Midwest East by three points over the Chicago Cougars.
In Wooster, Cristian Adragna registered a goal and three assists, Cody Mastay two goals and an assist, Ryan Messing and Conner Graham two goals, and Owen Limback three assists to back Will Augustine’s 27 saves in goal.
The Jets outshot Wooster 75-28.
“We had a slow start but in the second period, guys started to play our game,” Jets coach Tina Ciraulo said. “It was nice to watch them move the puck well and take it to them. Feels good to go into our Thanksgiving break on a win.”
Jason Crossland and Joey Johnson had a goal and an assist apiece, Matt Cole a goal, and Nick Beeman added two helpers.
“It felt great today to get this win as a team,” said Augustine (pictured front). “We’re starting to finish more of our chances and make the scoreboard reflect how the game went. It makes my job super easy in net when I only have to come up with a handful of saves. This game was extremely fun to watch. We dominated the whole game, killed off a few huge penalties, and kept finding ways to put the puck in the net.”
The Jets are now off until Thursday, Dec. 3 when they host the Columbus Mavericks at 2 p.m. at Fraser Hockeyland in the front end of a home-and-home set that wraps the following night at 8 p.m. at the OhioHealth Chiller North in Lewis Center, Ohio.
Aside from Francois’ goal at 14:36 of the third period in Fort Wayne, Patrick Hays netted a pair of goals with an assist to give Caden Fisher the win between the pipes.
“Really solid effort from start to finish,” Metro associate coach Jamie Lovell said. “I could go down the lineup and mention each player for number of great little things they did. The close score I don’t think tells the proper story of this game. We committed to doing little things, we hounded pucks, and our transition game looked really good. Only negative, I suppose, was we only had three goals to show for the scoring chances we had. Missing the net a lot and made their goalie look good at times with our shot selection.
“We are winning games the right way, locking things down at the end when we were protecting a one-goal lead. This is a confident group right now and we are really pleased with how they are playing going into the holiday break.”
Hays agreed with Lovell.
“We were working them in their zone really well,” said Hays (pictured below). “Their goalie played a hell of a game, but the score doesn’t reflect how well we played. We stuck to keeping the puck in their zone and dominated them down there.
“Goals are scored in front of the net so that’s where I went for them. (Joey) Mocnik fed me in the dead area for the first one. Then (Tim) Washburn fed me back door for the second one. Same with the last goal, went to the net, battled a little bit, and got an assist.”
Next up for the MJDP is a two-game series at Fraser Hockeyland Dec. 5-6 versus Chicago. Game times are 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 11:30 a.m. Sunday.
The MHC is in Columbus on Saturday, Dec. 5 for an 8:30 p.m. puck drop with the Mavericks.
All games this season are available on HockeyTV.com.
