CHESAPEAKE, Va. – The MJDP improved to 1-1 at USPHL Nationals Friday night while the Metro Jets fell to 0-2 in a pair of games played at the Chilled Ponds Ice Sports Complex.
With the 5-2 win over the Minnesota Blue Ox, the MJDP has a chance to make the semifinals depending on what happens Saturday.
Winless after losing 4-2 to the Northern Cyclones, the Jets’ season will come to a close after their third round-robin game Saturday afternoon.
Joey Mocnik scored twice with an assist for the MJDP to go along with a goal and an assist from Tim Washburn and single goals from Herman Ahokas and captain Brayden Tayles.
In goal, Daniel Miscavish made 27 saves for the victory and Max Hartwell posted two assists from the blue line.
“Great bounce-back game for this group,” Jets associate coach Jamie Lovell said. “They did their job and got the win. We still need help tomorrow but all we can ask of our guys is to focus on what they can control, and they did that.
“Would have been nice to score a few more goals, as we know it’s going to come down to a tiebreaker with that being a factor. Focus on tomorrow, and you never know what can happen.”
Down 4-0 after allowing three power-play goals, Cristian Adragna and Will Jentz scored in the third period for the Jets and Louis-Pierre Fortier steered aside 23 shots in net.
“Unfortunate way to end your season,” said Jets coach-GM Justin Quenneville. “Formats like this don’t reward the strongest, but ultimately, we didn’t take care of business when we needed to. You need some puck luck, some calls, some saves and some goals. We got none of it. It’s not an excuse, it’s just unfortunate and our guys deserved a better fate. We do have an important game to finish on a high note tomorrow.”
“We are disappointed, obviously,” added Lovell. “We hadn’t lost back-to-back games all season long so we picked the wrong time of year to have an off couple days.
“I’m proud of what our guys accomplished this season. It’s a tough tournament to win and you have to be at your best in this type of format. The best team doesn’t necessarily win, the team that plays the best wins, and yesterday and today we didn’t play our best, far from it, really.”
The Jets play the Charleston Colonials Saturday at 1:20 p.m., followed by the MJDP and New York Aviators at 4 p.m.
All tournament games are streamed on HockeyTV.com.
