Behind a great game by Joseph Birmingham, who had two goals and two assists, the St. Louis Bandits defeated the Springfield Jr. Blues, 8-1.

Birmingham scored on the power play at 2:49 into the second period to make the score 2-1 St. Louis and again while 16:49 into the second to make the score 5-1 St. Louis.

The win gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead in the best of five series.

The Bandits' Tyler Green was a brick wall in net, as he came up with 25 saves and let only one puck past him. Despite the solid performance, Green will actually see his goals against average rise, as it stood at 0.5 entering the contest.

St. Louis forced Springfield's goalies to work all game long, launching 36 shots and forcing 28 saves. Gabe Antoni made 20 stops and Tyler Parks made eight. The Bandits' penalty kill was spotless, allowing no goals on three Springfield power plays.

St. Louis also got points from Joe Kalisz, who also grabbed one goal and three assists and Ryan Stouffer, who also registered one goal and one assist. St. Louis also had goals scored by Rance Hughes, who had two and Stephen Bopp and Drew Slaton, who each put in one. Other players who recorded assists for St. Louis were Cody Ganchar, Wes Elrod, and Garret Peterson, who contributed one a piece and Frank Dichiara and Josh Dangel, who each chipped in two.

The Jr. Blues relied on a core group of players for most of their offense, as Gavin Tufte, Josef Pontasch and Kyle Cook took 14 of the team's 26 shots.

In addition, Springfield received assists from Chris Sitler and Cody Kohn, who contributed one a piece.

St. Louis incurred 14 minutes in penalty time with seven minors. Springfield ended with 68 minutes in penalty time with nine minors and two majors. For the Jr. Blues, Kevin Walters was ejected from the game.