MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. – All three Metro Jets teams were in action last weekend, with the Jets getting two wins at home and the Jets Elite team picking up a win on the road.
The Jets continued their rivalry with the Toledo Cherokee Friday night at Mount Clemens Ice Arena, earning a hard-fought 5-3 win before edging the Columbus Mavericks 2-1 Saturday afternoon.
In the opener, AJ Zaccagni scored twice, and captain Jake Taylor and Jaxon Stone posted two assists apiece to back Evan Peacock’s 27-save outing in goal.
Peacock, who also had an assist in the game, relieved Philip Hall early in the first period with Toledo up 2-1.
“It’s always a good game between these two teams, and tonight was more of the same,” Jets associate head coach Jamie Lovell said. “We have a lot of new players who haven’t had the privilege to experience the rivalry with Toledo yet, so now they see what it’s all about and what it takes to win these games.
“There was a lot of emotion in the game tonight, and it was only game 1 of the season.”
Aidan Charron, Gabe Outman and Ryder Novock added goals for the Jets.
For Toledo, Jacob Myers scored twice, and Hank Davis added a goal and an assist.
Cherokee goalie Daxton Lucidi stopped 32 shots in the loss.
Against Columbus, Sutton Majeske and Alessandro Evangelista scored for the Jets and Hall collected 28 saves.
Alex Brown scored for the Mavericks and Jonah Little finished with 39 saves between the pipes.
“We will take the two points from this game, and that’s about all the positives we can take,” Lovell said. “After last night’s emotional win against Toledo, I expected us to perhaps not be as sharp tonight, but I was hoping our players would prove me wrong. We did not play well at all but somehow managed to still win. Have to credit Philip Hall for doing his job tonight and making saves when we needed them.
“It’s a good start to the season, but still a lot of learning and development to come, starting this week in practice.”
The Jets are in Columbus this Friday night for an 8 p.m. faceoff from the OhioHealth Chiller North.
Saturday afternoon, Cooper Langley stopped all 13 shots fired his way as the Jets Elite started the season with a 2-0 win against the Fort Wayne Spacemen from the PSM Icehouse in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Dimitry Aksenov and Will Smith found the net for the Jets.
Fort Wayne goalie Austin Schaertel took the loss for the Spacemen.
“I thought we did a great job executing a lot of the details we worked on these past few weeks, and I thought we did well managing our emotions and jitters given it was our first game,” said Jets associate coach Danny Vanderwiel. “We got the saves that we needed, which is always a positive. Obviously have things that we need to clean up, but the work has only just begun.
“I think it will be a fun year.”
The MJDP team was also in Fort Wayne, falling 8-1.
Clovis Gamelin scored the lone goal and goaltender Arnaud Paradis made 52 saves.
Nikita Voloubiev, Mikhail Gorbunov, Bogdan Vysotsky and Evan Wilson all potted two goals each for Fort Wayne.
Spacemen netminder Gleb Rakov fashioned a 27-save performance.
All USPHL games are available on BlackBearSports.tv.
Photos/Sara Vasseur
