LEWIS CENTER, Ohio – Five different players scored, and Daniel Miscavish made 23 saves in goal as the Metro Jets kicked off the 2021-22 USPHL season with a 5-2 win over the Columbus Mavericks Friday night at the OhioHealth Chiller North.
Kam Hellman, Joey Mocnik, Andreas Fleutot, Anders Grongstad and Tim Washburn all found the back of the net, while Washburn and Mocnik added assists for multi-point games.
“Getting the win on the road in our first game is always good,” Jets assistant coach Tina Ciraulo said. “We did a lot of positive things but definitely have some areas to work on. Credit to their goalie (Zach Waizmann) on making a lot of saves, standing on his head and keeping them in the game. We got timely goals in the second and then Grongstad scoring in the third to seal it with a shorthanded goal.
“A little adversity at beginning of the year is always good, but I will take our two points and focus on tomorrow’s game.”
Niko Murgic and Alex Schaumburger collected two assists apiece in the win.
For Columbus, Ethan Bishara and Nik Jozefiak scored, Ryan Mackey assisted on both, and Waizmann finished with 53 saves between the pipes.
“Yeah, a huge win to start the year, and it was great to get back into the swing of things,” said Jets defenseman Owen Limback. “We came into today with the goal of being 1-0 and that’s exactly what we did. We would’ve liked to clean up a few things throughout the game, but on the bright side, we have another game tomorrow to work out those kinks. A win is a win and anytime we can do that, I’d say we’re headed in the right direction.”
The Jets are back on the road Saturday to play the Wooster Oilers at 6:30 p.m. from the Alice Noble Ice Arena.
“Another big road game tomorrow against Wooster and we look to keep improving as a team committing to the process,” Limback said. “It was great to get the first game out of the way and come out on top. Now our focus is on to Game 2, and we look to do the same thing. A lot of positives today as well, and we look to keep that momentum going forward.
All USPHL games are streamed on HockeyTV.com.
