The Northeast Generals defeated the Philadelphia Rebels 4 – 3 in a shootout last night which enabled the visitors from Massachusetts to take two out of three games this weekend between the two teams. It was the Rebels fourth loss in their last five games.
The Rebels would open the scoring on Ryan Patrick’s twentieth goal on the season.
Konur Peterson picked up the loose puck behind the Generals net and passed it back to Patrick along the far side boards. Patrick immediately sent a touch pass back to Diarmad DiMurro who in turn sent it over to Carson Moniz on his left. Moniz stepped up and took a snapshot the was saved by Generals netminder Marko Sturma but the rebound came right out to Patrick who put it past Sturma to give the Rebels the 1- 0 with 6:09 into the opening period.
Three minutes later Austin Martz would score his first goal of the season.
Aaron Maguyon would gain the line and send the puck into the Generals zone where it was picked up by Jimmy Glynn behind Northeast’s net. As Glynn started to skate towards the faceoff circle he passed the puck up to Martz. The Shaler, PA native turned and took a high wrister that beat Sturma short side to give the Rebels a 2 – 0 lead.
Sturma was replaced by David Fessenden after allowing two goals on four shots.
The Generals would cut the Rebels lead in half with 9:14 into the second period. Adam Cohen had the puck down low to the right side of Eli Billing. Cohen passed it out to Ryan Rowland in the slot and Rowland took a shot that was saved by Billing but the rebound went to the end boards. Sviatoslov Kuchynski would pick up the loose puck at the goal line and take a sharp angle shot that went off Billing’s blocker and into the back of the net to make it a 2 – 1 game.
Twenty-eight seconds later the Generals would tie the game.
After Martz picked up the puck in the neutral zone he went to dump the puck into the offensive zone for a line change but the puck bounced off a Northeast player onto Trent Harsma’s stick. Harsma skated in all along on a breakaway towards Billing. As Harsma got to the top of the crease he made a spin move and tucked the puck long side past Billing to make 2 – 2.
With 8:24 left in the middle period Northeast’s forward Brian Chambers was called for checking from behind to put the Rebels on the powerplay. Eight seconds later Brandon Stanley put the Rebels back in front.
After the ensuing faceoff was won by Jensen Zerban, the puck went back to DiMurro at the near side point. DiMurro would pass it over to Kolby Vegara on his left and Vegara took a slapshot that was saved by Fessenden but the rebound came loose and Stanley shot it past Fessenden for his eighteenth goal on the season.
As time was winding down in the third, Northeast forward Matt Demelis took a sharp angle shot that was saved by Billing. As the puck bounced off his pads, Vegara dove to push the puck towards the boards but it went back to the nearside blueline to Joseph Nagle. The Generals defenseman would pass it up to Demelis at the top of the faceoff circle and he looked to his right and found Brady Gaudette breaking towards the net. Gaudette took a wrist shot that beat Billing glove side to tie the game with 5:16 left in the third.
After regulation ended, the two teams played a scoreless overtime period to send the game to a shootout. Generals defenseman Ryan Bogan would score the only goal in the shootout to give Northeast the 4 – 3 win.
Billing would turn aside 25 of 28 shots while Sturma and Fessenden stopped 39 of 42. Click here for the box score.
The Rebels will close out their last home game of the regular season on Wednesday at 3:05pm against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights.
