Brayton Frick, Caesar Bjork, Ruslan Jamaldinov hit the back of the net while Owen Crudale stopped 36 of 37 shots to lead the Rebels to a 3 – 1 win over the visiting Johnstown Tomahawks in game one of this two-game series.
It was the Rebels second straight win on the season.
Prior to the game, the boys had a special team meeting and message with Philadelphia Flyers legend and general manager Danny Briere. Briere then dropped the ceremonial first puck.
In the first two games of the season, the Rebels used grit and determination. Last night they used speed and lots of it along with a ferocious attack.
Frick opened the scoring at 4:38 into the first period. Linas Dedinas dumped the puck deep into Johnstown’s near side corner from center ice where Thomas Neu fought off a Tomahawk defender and passed the biscuit back to Luke Janviriya at the point. Janviriya took a soft shot on net that was deflected out front by Frick and past Johnstown netminder Tommy O’Donnell for Frick’s third goal of the young season.
The Tomahawks evened the score at 5:55 into the middle stanza. Pressuring in the Rebels zone, the puck was picked up at the near side half wall by Johnstown’s Sean Morgan who sent it back to Hank Reed at the point. Reed took a shot that was saved by Crudale but the rebound came right out to Tate Pecknold on the door step and Pecknold backhanded the puck up and over Crudale and into the back of the net.
Just shy of two minutes later the Rebels, regained the lead for good on Bjork’s second goal of the season. As Morgan was skating out of his own zone, he was stripped off the puck by Charles Panchisin just outside the Johnstown blueline. As Panchisin gained the line along the near side boards, he made a drop pass to Bjork who took a wrist shot from below the faceoff dot that beat O’Donnell long side to make it a 2 – 1 game.
With 5:31 remaining in the contest, Jamaldinov made the score 3 – 1. Jamaldinov picked up the loose puck at center ice and dumped it deep into the offensive zone where Tomahawks defenseman Lukas Klemm was pressured by Billy Sheridan and the puck went to the end wall where it was picked up by Bjork. Bjork made a centering pass out front to an open Jamaldinov who wasted little time and wristed the biscuit past O’Donnell for Jamaldinov’s third goal of the season to close out the scoring.
O’Donnell, who kept Johnstown in the game, stopped 40 of 43 shots while Crudale picked up his second win of the season. Click HERE for the complete box score.
