The Hampton Roads Whalers Premier team kicked off their 2024 USPHL Southeast Showcase weekend with a 3-1 win over the Florida Junior Blades on Friday afternoon.
Despite picking up the loss for the Jr. Blades, Lasse Winther Sorensen was stellar between the pipes as he made 33 saves on 36 shots. Nate McAlpine picked up his second-straight win, stopping 27 of the 28 shots he faced.
Neither team was able to find success on the powerplay as the Whalers were 0-for-2, and the Blades went 0-for-6.
First Period
The Whalers came out and off to a hot start, as it took them just 54 seconds to get on the board. Samuel Russo notched his second goal of the season, with the assists going to Wyatt Teubert and Nikita Zozulia.
Wanting to respond quickly, the Jr. Blades peppered McAlpine, who saw four shots in the span of 10 seconds. He stood tall to keep his team’s one-goal lead intact. In a period where it seemed as though not much zone time could be established by either team, the Whalers took a 1-0 lead into the second period. They outshot Florida 17-9 in the period, but only few were good chances.
The Jr. Blades had the only powerplay in the period.
Second Period
At 4:12 of the second period, Florida’s Ronnie Turano was called for goaltender interference, sending the Whalers to their first powerplay. On the ensuing powerplay, the Whalers had a good amount of sustained pressure, but the Jr. Blades did a fantastic job of not giving any high-danger chances up and were able to kill the penalty.
At 7:48 of the middle frame, Curren Stukey was called for tripping, giving the Jr. Blades their second powerplay of the period. Thanks to some great saves by McAlpine and good defensive effort from the killers, they were able to skate away unharmed as they killed it off.
At 11:48, McAlpine was asked to come up with two massive saves to keep their 1-0 lead. The first came off a mini breakaway from Florida’s Sander Georg Korrell, then Axel Ruski-Jones on the rebound. With 3:46 to go in the middle frame, the Whalers were called for their second Too Many Men penalty of the game. The Jr. Blades held some great pressure in the Whalers’ zone, making crisp passes and getting the boys in blue and green running around, but the Whalers stayed composed and were able to kill of their second-straight penalty.
Just under a minute to play in the second, the Whalers extended their lead to two thanks to Robbie Rajnys’ fifth goal of the season. Hayden Barr collected a loose puck on the right-wing side of the ice. Picking his head up, he was able to find Rajnys on the backdoor and dished him a beautiful cross-ice pass. Max Roos collected the secondary assist.
The second finished with a 2-0 scoreline as the Whalers looked to continue building on their momentum. The Jr. Blades outshot the Whalers in the period by a 11-10 shot total. The Whalers went 0-for-1 on the powerplay, while the Jr. Blades went 0-for-3.
Third Period
1:58 into the third period, the Jr. Blades pulled to within one as a Whalers’ zone clearance attempt took a weird bounce off the glass, and allowed for Easton Hall to regain possession of the puck. Hall took a few strides on the right-wing side of the ice, and riffled a shot short side on McAlpine. That was Hall’s third goal of the season.
Just under six minutes to go, Hayden Barr collected his first goal of the season to extend the Whalers’ lead to two. A beautiful seeing-eye shot split the legs of the Jr. Blades Defender, and picked top shelf over Winther Serensen’s shoulder.
The Jr. Blades were unable to make a comeback, and ultimately fell by a 3-1 scoreline to kick off their Showcase weekend. They went 0-for-2 on the powerplay for the period and the Whalers were 0-for-1. The Whalers held a slight shot advantage in the period of 9-8.
