Mavericks Skate To Decisive 5-2 Wim Over Bloomington

The Missouri Mavericks earned their first home win of the 2012-13 Central Hockey League regular season with a decisive 5-2 victory over the Bloomington Blaze Saturday night at Independence Events Center in front of a crowd of 5,288 fans. Jeff Pierce celebrated his 29th birthday with a goal and two assists and rookie goaltender Mathieu Corbeil turned in a strong 34-save performance. Missouri improved their record to 3-4-2 with the victory. The Mavericks now travel to Oklahoma Sunday afternoon to face off against the Tulsa Oilers in the first meeting of the season between the two teams.

The Mavs were granted two power play opportunities in the first ten minutes of regulation, but could not convert on either of the shots. Missouri finally broke through at the 13:20 mark of the first period when Brian Bicek fed Kellan Tochkin on a two-on-one odd man rush to give the Mavs the lead late in the first. Andrew Courtney was also credited with an assist on the goal. It was the first time this season that the Mavs had scored the first goal of a game at home. The score remained 1-0 in favor of Missouri until the first intermission. The Mavs outshot the Blaze 17-6 in the period.

Missouri continued to pile up the shots in the second period, but none found their way past Blaze goalie Pier-Olivier Pelletier until the 12:02 mark of the period. Pelletier mishandled a puck deep in the Blaze zone and Sebastien Thinel planted the mistake in the back of the net, doubling the Mavs lead to 2-0. Jamie Vanderveeken and Jeff Pierce assisted on the goal. Matthew Larke halved the Mavs’ lead shortly after with a power play goal, while Matt McCready was in the penalty box for roughing. The Mavs took a 2-1 lead into the second intermission and continued to outshoot Bloomington by a count of 33-23.

Two goals by the Mavs in the first half of the third period extended the lead to 4-1. Brandon Smith skated through two Bloomington defenders and blew the puck past Pelletier for his first goal of the season. Jeff Pierce celebrated his 29th birthday with a breakaway goal at 9:30 of the final period. Bloomington brought the game within striking distance shortly after though, getting another power play goal from David Gilbert, making the score 4-2. The Mavs sealed away the victory with a goal from Brian Bicek at the 16:29 mark of the third. Pierce assisted on the goal, bringing his point total on the night to three. The Mavs held off Bloomington for the final minutes of regulation and held on for their first home victory of the season.

Missouri dominated the shot count on the night, outshooting Bloomington 47-36 on the evening.

The Mavs now travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma to face the Tulsa Oilers Sunday afternoon at the BOK Center. This is the first meeting of the season between the Mavericks and the Oilers. The Mavericks return home on Saturday, November 17 to face the Rapid City Rush, kicking off a three-game home stand against the Rush, Wichita Thunder on Tuesday, November 20 and the Fort Worth Brahmas on Friday, November 23.