Forward Aaron Maguyon had a career night as he scored four goals to lead the Rebels to a 6 – 1 win over the visiting Johnstown Tomahawks. The victory snapped a Rebels two game losing streak.
During Sunday night’s game the Tomahawks controlled the play throughout most of the evening. It seemed to start the same way in last night as former Rebels’ defenseman Carter Dwyer put Johnstown up 1 – 0 just twenty-nine seconds into the first period. After the opening face, the puck went back into the Tomahawks zone. Johnstown defenseman Chris Trouba went to set up the play by head manning the puck to a forward but it went too far into the Rebels zone where netminder Ryan Keane played the puck up along the far side boards. Ben Schmidling intercepted the puck and sent it back to the point to Trouba who took a shot on net that was gloved by Keane but he couldn’t control the rebound. Schmidling picked up the loose puck by the side of the net and found a wide-open Dwyer in the slot who took a wrister that beat Keane to give the visitors a quick lead.
Maguyon would tie the game at one at 7:45 into the first. After bringing the puck into the offensive zone, the Egg Harbor Township, NJ native went to take a shot that was blocked by Tomahawks’ defenseman Reagan Wortz but the puck slid back to the far side point to Kolby Vegara. Vegara took a wrist shot that was saved by Jack Leavy but the rebound came out to Maguyon who picked up the rebound and deposited the biscuit into the open net for his second goal on the season.
The Rebels would take the lead for good with 7:28 remaining in the first. Justin Smith intercepted a Tomahawks clearing pass at center ice and passed the puck to his right to Jonathan Bendorf. Bendorf would send a cross-ice pass back to Jensen Zerban at the faceoff circle. Zerban took a one-timer that missed the net but Bendorf picked up the puck from the backdoor and put it behind Leavy to put the Rebels up 2 – 1. It was Bendorf’s fourth goal on the season, and it was the Rebels first lead of the weekend.
Diarmad DiMurro would close out the scoring in the opening period with his third goal on the season. As Johnstown’s forward Joe Kile tried to bring the puck out of his own zone he was stripped of it by Adam Peck at the point. As Peck skated to the faceoff circle he dropped passed the puck to DiMurro. DiMurro would cut across the goal mouth and fake out Leavy and put the puck into the back of the net with 4:38 remaining in the first.
Maguyon then would commence with his natural hat trick just 1:08 into the second period. As he broke out of his own zone, Maguyon would pass the puck up to newcomer Jordin Holmes. The Willow Grove, PA native would bring the puck up along the near side boards and take a shot at the top of the faceoff circle. Leavy made the save but a hard charging Maguyon followed up on the play and picked up the rebound and slid the puck past his ex-teammate to give the Rebels a 4 – 1 lead.
Trouba was called for tripping at 7:09 into the period to put the home team on the powerplay. As the Rebels were setting up the play in the offensive zone, Bendorf would start the play by passing the puck to DiMurro at the top of the point. DiMurro would pass it over to Maguyon at the top of the far side faceoff circle. Maguyon took a wrist shot that handcuffed Leavy and beat him glove side to make it a 5 – 1 game.
Playing 4 on 4 hockey, Zerban took the puck away from Trouba along the near side boards. The puck would come back to Holmes who pushed it to Maguyon as he skated towards the top of the faceoff circle. Maguyon would skate towards the top of the slot and then take a wrist shot that beat Leavy glove side to complete the natural hat trick and his fourth goal of the game with 7:26 left in the game.
Leavy turned aside 32 of 38 of shots while Keane stopped 19 of 20. Click here for the box score.
The Rebels now have a small break in the schedule. They won’t play their next game until Friday, November 10 against the New Jersey Titans but they will then play eight games in seventeen days.
