Flint earns trip to Silver Cup with sweep of Vengeance
Three Rivers 1 @ Flint 2 (OT) (Flint wins best of five series, 3-0)
The Flint Jr. Generals became the fifth team to punch their ticket to the NA3HL Silver Cup Championships with a 2-1 overtime win at home in Game 3 of their best of 5 East Division Semi-Finals with the Vengeance. The win completed a sweep for the Jr. Generals, who won all three games by a goal, with two of the wins coming in overtime, including Friday’s clincher. The Jr. Generals seemed determined to win as they poured in 50 shots on goal, before finally getting the game-winner, which came off the stick of Austin Fletcher, who buried his first goal of the playoffs just a little more than halfway through the first overtime period. After no scoring in the 1st period, the Vengeance struck first in the 2nd period on a goal from Tom Diffendal. That lead stood until late in the 3rd period when Jake Howie scored his third goal of the series to tie the game and send to overtime. The other star for Flint in the series was goaltender Anders Franke, who made 37 saves in the win and even assisted on the game-winning goal. Flint was able to win the series thanks in large part to shutting down one of the league’s best players in Three Rivers forward Nico Vecchio, who went scoreless and added four assists in the series. Flint with be the #5 seed at the Silver Cup Championships and be in a pool with the North Iowa Bulls and the winner of the Granite City/Alexandria series. Boxscore
Granite City 2 @ Alexandria 3 (Granite City leads best of 5 series, 2-1)
After leading 3-1 in the third period, the Alexandria Blizzard held off Granite City in a home game for a 3-2 win in game three of the NA3HL playoffs Friday night. Ian Ecklund, on assists from Tom Schmidt and Danny Pelzer, scored the opening goal of the game at 12:07, but Granite City came back to tie the game in the first period on a power play goal at 16:59 from Eric Miller. Neither team was able to gain an advantage in the second period, and the score remained tied at 1-1 heading into the third. Alexandria's Karson Kuntz used a power play opportunity to give the Blizzard the lead at 18:22, and Ecklund scored his second goal of the game at 19:23 for the 3-1 lead. Granite City closed the gap to 3-2 on a goal by Aidan Verbecke, but the Blizzard was able to battle back the Lumberjacks to end the game on that score and force a game four in the series.Dom DeGuisseppi earned the win in goal, stopping 26 of the 28 shots sent his way. Scott Murray took the loss for the Lumberjacks as Alexandria peppered the Granite City goalie with 55 shots at the net. Alexandria will now host Granite City tomorrow night, Saturday, at 7 p.m. If they would win, a tie breaking game five would be played in Granite City on Sunday. Boxscore
