LOCKPORT, Ill. — The penultimate weekend of the 2025-26 USPHL season saw six games on the schedule between all three Metro Jets teams.
The Metro Jets fell at home Friday night to the Columbus Mavericks by a 5-2 count and then rebounded for a 7-1 win Sunday afternoon on the road over the Cincinnati Jr. Cyclones.
The MJDP lost 5-3 to the Battle Creek Kernels Friday night on the road and the Metro Jets Elite played a mini showcase in Chicago, shutting out the Fort Wayne Spacemen 3-0 Friday night, losing 3-2 to the Red River Spartans Saturday afternoon in a shootout, and then dropping a 2-1 overtime decision Saturday night to the Chicago Crush.
Starting the action Friday, Brendan Dreisbach pitched a 28-save shutout as the Jets Elite beat Fort Wayne 3-0 at the Summit Ice Center.
Elias Schwarzer, Grady Smith and Ronnie Lubbers scored in the win.
Fort Wayne goalie Austin Schaertel finished with 31 saves.
At The Rink Battle Creek, Cameron Shaffer had a goal and an assist and Cory Anderson and Blake Brackett scored one each as Cam Cyrus made 34 saves in goal for the MJDP team.
For the Kernels, Bogdan Guntypov had two goals and two assists, Arkadiusz Sobesto added a goal and two assists, Ty Cornett and Zach Wolf each tallied a goal and an assist, and goalie Galvin Reagan collected 41 saves.
“I thought the team played a pretty good game,” Jets associate coach Jake Howie said. “We put 44 shots on goal tonight and controlled most of the game, but the chances we were giving up in return were grade-A chances and odd-man rushes. It’s a bad combo to run into a hot goalie and give up odd-man chances the other way, one that makes winning tough.”
Back at Mount Clemens Ice Arena, Luka Pivec and Lucas Larson scored in the loss to Columbus as Jakub Obzera made 30 saves between the pipes.
Jan Sebastien Vancura scored three goals for the Mavericks, Ethan Alexander added a goal and an assist, Jameson Motyka chipped in three assists, and Tucker Kinnear also scored.
“Tough loss tonight,” Jets associate head coach Jamie Lovell said. “We flat out got outplayed. It’s disappointing that we came out with an effort like that at this time of the year.”
Saturday in Chicago against the Spartans, Smith went for a goal and two assists, Braden Graham posted a goal and an assist, and goaltender Jesse Lee put up 23 saves. Conor Mulligan tacked on two assists.
Red River was led by two goals from Damian Murin and two assists from Ian Graber. Goalie Dominic Filzetti turned aside 55 shots.
Wrapping up the showcase, the Crush took an OT win Saturday night over the Jets Elite, Ramsey Paullo scoring the winner at 3:36 of extra time.
Jayson Shores netted the lone Jets goal and Dreisbach finished with 26 saves.
Joshua Yeates also scored for the Crush and goaltender Param Chawla made 20 stops.
“I think this weekend was a successful weekend,” Jets associate coach Danny Vanderwiel said. “It was a business trip and the boys treated it that way. Obviously, we’d love all six points, but we will take the four. It’s crunch time and I think if we play the way we have been, we will get the results we desire.”
Sunday afternoon at the Queen City Sportsplex, the Jets used two goals and two assists from AJ Zaccagni and a goal and two assists from Larson to get the two points in Cincinnati.
Evan Peacock made 17 saves in goal, while Noah Bodurka, Joel Paterson, Ayden Hartzell and Pivec added goals in the win.
Ilya Lutes scored the Cincinnati goal and goalie Carson Balow finished with 61 saves.
“We bounced back today with a good first period, so now we need to build off this going into the last weekend of the season,” said Lovell. “Still plenty to play for.”
ON TAP
(Rest of 2025-26 regular season; USPHL playoffs TBD)
Metro Jets
Friday, Feb. 20 – Cincinnati Jr. Cyclones, 2:45 p.m., Mount Clemens Ice Arena
Saturday, Feb. 21 – Fresh Coast Freeze, 12:30 p.m., Griff’s Ice House West
MJDP
Thursday, Feb. 19 – Fort Wayne Spacemen, 2:45 p.m., Mount Clemens Ice Arena
Friday, Feb. 20 – Fresh Coast Freeze, 12:15 p.m., Mount Clemens Ice Arena
Metro Jets Elite
Thursday, Feb. 19 – Fort Wayne Spacemen, noon, Mount Clemens Ice Arena
All USPHL games are available at BlackBearSports.tv.
Photos/Sara Vasseur
