The Bloomington Blaze, fueled by Mid-Illini Credit Union, used a late first-period flurry to defeat the Central Hockey League-leading Allen Americans 5-2 on Saturday night at Allen Event Center. The Blaze opened the scoring late in the first period with a pair of goals just 43 seconds apart plus a tally in the final seconds. Jon Booras struck first from the right circle on the power play with 2:45 left on feeds from Nicklas Lindberg and Steve Makway, and 43 seconds later Matthew Larke lit the lamp from the left circle on assists from Nicholas Rioux and Dan Barczuk. With just 3.5 seconds left before the first intermission, Dan Barczuk intercepted a pass at the Allen line and rifled it home to give the Blaze the 3-0 advantage at the first stoppage. The Americans finally scored with 24.8 seconds left in the second period on a Jamie Schaafsma redirect of a Tyler Ludwig shot, with the second assist given to Brett Skinner to cut the Blaze lead to 3-1 at the second intermission. Barczuk collected his second goal of the game shorthanded when broke up a play in the Allen zone and skated in open ice down the left side to convert a wrister. Nicholas Rioux assisted as the Blaze opened up the lead to 4-1 with 11:48 remaining in the third period. The Americans were given a two-man advantage and emptied their net, scoring with 3:43 left on a Tyler Ludwig shot that trickled inside the left post on assists from Anthony Maiani and Brett Skinner to cut the deficit to 4-2, but with 3:03 left Travis Granbois found the empty net as the power play continued for the Blaze's second shorthanded goal of the game to give them the 5-2 advantage with 3:03 left in regulation. Pier-Olivier Pelletier earned the win in net with 41 saves while starting Allen goaltender Steve Silverthorn took the loss with six first-period saves. The Blaze were 1-for-5 on the power play while the Americans were 1-of-6. The Blaze continue the stretch of road games with a visit to the Quad City Mallards on Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. with a 6:45 pre-game on WJBC.com and CHL-TV. Fans are invited to watch road games at Gill Street Sports Bar and Restaurant, 3002 Gill Street in Bloomington. The Blaze travel to Denver for games next Friday and Saturday, and the next Blaze home game is Saturday, February 9. For more information on the Blaze, call 309-TC SPORT (827-7678) or visit www.bloomingtonblaze.com, Facebook and Twitter (BLMBlaze). For single-game and game day tickets, visit the U.S. Cellular Coliseum box office or call 309-434-2679. Junior Blaze streak ends: The Junior Blaze winning streak ended at six games after a 6-3 loss on Saturday night to the host Rhinelander Street Cats. Steven Smoltz, Ty Gehrken and Patrick Anaruk scored for the Junior Blaze.
