FRASER, Mich. – The Metro Jets completed a weekend sweep over the Pittsburgh Vengeance with a thrilling 4-3 shootout win Sunday afternoon at Fraser Hockeyland.
Brodie Thornton (pictured) scored the lone goal in the shootout in the sixth round as Fredrik Meurling turned aside all six shots in the Jets net.
“These wins are big,” said Meurling. “It was a hard battle today and we should have finished it earlier, but we put in a great effort and got it done today.”
The Jets trailed 3-0 late in the second period before Anthony Cinato made it 3-1 in the final minute of the middle stanza on a power play.
Tyler German then made it 2-0 at 4:29 of the third period and Jets captain Jeremy Schwartz tied the game at the 17-minute mark.
Meurling was pulled after Santeri Rajakallio made it 3-0 Pittsburgh in favor of Michael Paul, but then went back in once Schwartz tied the game.
“This was an interesting game, to say the least,” said Jets coach-GM Justin Quenneville. “Credit to Pittsburgh for coming out hard, which we knew they would after last night’s tough loss. We’ve always had good matchups against them, and we’ve been fortunate to come out on the right side of them a lot.
“I wasn’t happy with the way we responded early, and it really wasn’t fair to Freddy the way they were pushing us around and having their way with us. In the end, we responded well, but it’s tough right now to get the guys to play for something because they’ve earned this opportunity. Maybe we play for a league title, but especially today on a Sunday, it was tough, but proud of how they responded.”
Tyler Duderstadt and Joar Rosengard also scored for Pittsburgh and Landon Anderson made 33 saves.
Meurling finished with 18 saves, while Paul stopped all four shots he faced.
Jets defenseman Devlin Macaulay tacked on two assists.
The Jets wrap up the regular season next weekend with a home-and-home series against the Lansing Wolves. Game time Saturday night is 7:30 p.m. from Fraser Hockeyland and then 3:30 p.m. from The Summit Sports and Ice Complex in Dimondale.
All games will be streamed on www.HockeyTV.com.
