Steel Fall to Springfield Jr. Blues

The Steel fall to the Springfield Jr. Blues 4-3 in front of a capacity crowd at Chippewa Area Ice Arena on Friday night.

The Blues’ Ben Schmidling found the back of the net to take the early first period lead. After assisting the first goal, Max Brainin got a goal of his own with help from brothers Ben and David Schmidling to give the Blues the 2-0 lead. The Steel fought back with a goal from Kyle Schroder assisted by Jacob Dirks and Connor Szmul.

Despite strong defense from the Steel, the Blues’ Nikita Kozyrev slid in a goal with assists from Brandon Puricelli and Nick Techel. The Steel closed the two-goal lead with goals from Braiden Dorfman assisted by Isaac Moberg and Connor Szmul tied it up unassisted.

With just over two minutes remaining in the  third period, Nikita Kozyrev broke the tie to give the Blues a 4-3 win.

Between the pipes for the Steel was Josh Langford with 26 saves and Jack Williams for the Blues with 25 saves.

The Steel are back in action tomorrow night for a 7:10 p.m. puck drop as they take on the Springfield Jr. Blues to finish out the weekend series. Fans can get tickets at the door or online at chippewasteelhockey.com.

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The Chippewa Steel are members of the NAHL which is the oldest and largest junior hockey league of its kind in the United States and one of only two USA Hockey-certified leagues that operate under the non pay-to-play model.  The NAHL is also one of the best at advancing players to NCAA and professional hockey. Notable Alumni of the NAHL include Ryan Suter (MIN), Patrick Kane (CHI) and Phil Kessel (PIT) All league games are viewable via HockeyTV. For more information, visit chippewasteelhockey.com.