MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. – The final weekend of the 2025-26 USPHL regular season is in the books.
Five games were played last weekend, four on home ice at Mount Clemens Ice Arena, as all three teams jockeyed for playoff positioning.
Starting off the weekend Thursday afternoon at home, the Jets Elite fell 4-0 to the Fort Wayne Spacemen Elite.
Braedon Rasinskis scored twice, Colsen White had a goal and an assist, and Hayden Stratman also scored for the Spacemen as goalie Austin Schaertel stopped all 18 shots he faced in the win.
Jets goaltender Arnaud Paradis made 44 saves.
Later Thursday afternoon in Mount Clemens, the MJDP lost 5-3 to Fort Wayne.
Ryan Jacobson went for a goal and an assist, Vincent Pica and Cory Anderson scored, and Logan D’Andrea stopped 28 shots between the pipes.
Aiden Byler scored two goals for Fort Wayne, Antoine Bonin had a goal and an assist, and Ivan Barnashov and Reid Hyde also scored. Nikita Volobuiev tacked on three assists and goaltender Sumner Wood registered 26 saves.
“For 54 minutes tonight, we played a really good game, but at this level, if you don’t commit to playing a full 60 minutes, you won’t get the results you’re looking for,” Jets associate coach Jake Howie said. “And today, that was the case. We took a couple minutes off and made some mistakes and credit to Fort Wayne. They capitalized and that was the difference in the hockey game.”
Another Friday double header at Mount Clemens saw the MJDP beat the Fresh Coast Freeze 4-3 in a shootout and the Jets shut out the Cincinnati Jr. Cyclones 7-0.
Liam Smith had a goal and an assist and Cameron Shaffer and Gianluca Virelli scored in regulation and goaltender Cam Cyrus turned aside 30 shots for the win.
Emersen Lippert posted a goal and an assist for the Freeze, while Charles Huntoon and Hayden Bilk added goals and Carson Riley tallied two assists as Matthew Brinkman made 33 saves in net.
“Fun hockey game to be a part of because it’s back and forth for both teams,” Howie said. “Proud of the guys for showing resilience and battling back. Especially in the third, I thought we were really good about just keeping the game simple and we’re able to battle out two points in a shootout. As we go forward, if we can commit to playing 60 minutes and doing the little things like blocking shots and getting pucks in, I think we’re a really tough out in playoff hockey.”
Finishing up Friday at home, Philip Hall pitched a 10-save shutout for the Jets and captain Jake Taylor recorded a goal and two assists in the win.
Daniell Luska rang up three assists, Sutton Majeske, AJ Zaccagni, Jaxon Stone and Alessandro Evangelista all had a goal and an assist, and Ryder Novock and Noah Bodurka scored one each.
Cincinnati goaltender Carson Balow made 53 saves.
The Jets wrapped the season Saturday afternoon at Griff’s Ice House West in Holland, Mich., downing the Freeze 4-2 on the back of a hat trick from Zaccagni.
Stone also scored and Evan Peacock stopped 20 shots in goal.
Huntoon and Brad Cook scored for the Freeze and goalie Jakob Van Zweden finished with 46 saves.
“Good to close the season with two wins,” Jets associate head coach Jamie Lovell said. “We will give these guys a little break this week to recharge the batteries and prepare ourselves for the start of playoffs in two weeks.”
The USPHL playoffs start next week, with more information coming on all three Jets teams once schedules are finalized.
All USPHL games are available at BlackBearSports.tv.
Top photo/Sara Vasseur; Bottom photo/Matt Prieur
