MAVERICKS BEAT BLAZE, 4-1

The Missouri Mavericks defeated the Bloomington Blaze 4-1 Friday night at US Cellular Coliseum.  Mavericks’ goaltender BJ O’Brien stopped 36 of 37 shots in his first start for the Mavericks and Sebastien Thinel assisted on all four of the Mavericks’ goals.  Forward Andrew Courtney scored two goals and David Simoes and Ed McGrane scored the other two goals for the Mavericks who will return home for a game Saturday night against the Tulsa Oilers at Independence Events Center.
“Huge win, BJ was very solid in net for us,” said Mavericks’ Head Coach Scott Hillman.  “We had a very consistent last 40 minutes.  We had to get the bus legs out of us in the first but after that I thought we played very well.”
Courtney started the scoring early into the first period when he took a feed from McGrane and beat Blaze goaltender Brian Mahoney-Wilson top shelf at the 2:26 mark.  Thinel earned the first of his four assists on the play as well.  The Blaze tied the game when their leading scorer Jon Booras beat O’Brien for the first and only time of the game on a power play goal at the 13:35 mark of the opening period.  Bloomington had 19 shots in the first period, but O’Brien was equal to the task on 18 of the shots and the teams went to the locker rooms tied 1-1.
It was all Mavericks after the first period as David Simoes scored the lone goal of the second period at the 11:43 mark.  He jammed home the puck from the doorstep on assists from Thinel and John-Scott Dickson.  Missouri dominated the second period and outshot Bloomington 17-5, and the Mavericks held a 2-1 lead through the first 40 minutes of play.
In the third period, McGrane scored on the power play at the 2:34 mark to make it 3-1.  Then Courtney blasted home his second of the game at the 15:01 mark to finalize the scoring at 4-1.  Thinel earned the lone assist on each of the Mavericks’ goals in the third period.
The Mavericks return to Independence Events Center to face the Tulsa Oilers Saturday night at Independence Events Center.  Missouri will wear specialty St. Patrick’s Day jerseys that will be auctioned off after the game and a portion of the proceeds will benefit Community Services League.