Mavericks Blanked by Blaze

The return of last season’s leading scorer, Andrew Courtney, was all but forgotten by the time the final buzzer sounded in the Missouri Mavericks 7-0 loss to the Bloomington Blaze Friday night at Independence Events Center. Bloomington goaltender Pier-Olivier Pelletier made 36 saves on the night and was named the game’s first star, while Tyler Gron netted a hat trick for the visitors. The Mavs and Blaze square off again Saturday night at Independence Events Center at 7:05pm.

Bloomington was up 2-0 just over two minutes into regulation on just four shots, getting the goals from Niklas Lindberg and Gron. The goals came just 50 seconds apart from one another. Missouri had sustained pressure in the Blaze zone for most of the period, but were unable to find the back of the net for the remainder of the period. Missouri ended up outshooting Bloomington 13-7 in the period. The Mavs were zero-for-one on the power play through 20 minutes.

The Mavs continued to mount heavy pressure on the Blaze well into the second period, but once again couldn’t find the back of the net despite several scoring chances. Gron added his second goal of the night to move the score to 3-0 in favor of the Blaze with three minutes to go in the period. The goal was unassisted. The Blaze extended their lead 4-0 on a goal from Jesse Dudas with 1:27 remaining in the middle frame. The Mavs had outshot Bloomington 29-17 after 40 minutes.

Jon Booras, Dudas and Gron added goals in the third period to bring the final score to 7-0.

Missouri and Bloomington play again Saturday night at the IEC. Faceoff is 7:05pm. Tickets for all of the Mavericks’ regular season games on are sale now via Ticketmaster. For more information on the Missouri Mavericks visit www.MissouriMavericks.com.