After holding onto their victory Friday night, the Rebels used a balanced attack yesterday when five different players scored to give the home team a 5 – 1 win over the visiting Northeast Generals.
The first half of the first period was surprisingly up and down. Then Northeast’s Colin Bilek was called boarding at the 10:37 mark of the opening period sending the Rebels on the power play. With time almost expiring on Bilek’s penalty, Andreas Maier was on the far side boards and sent the puck back to Andrew Bellant on the point. Bellant passed the puck over to Gvido Jansons who was at the top of the face off circle and took a blast that beat Generals goalie David Fessenden to give the Rebels a 1 – 0 lead.
Nineteen seconds later, defenseman Ryan Solomon was breaking out of his zone and passed it up to his defensive partner Kolby Vegara. Vegara found a streaking Peter Zhong in the middle who skated in put the puck past Fessenden to give the Rebels a 2 – 0. It was Zhong’s first goal and would be ultimately the game winner.
Heading into the second period with a 2 – 0 lead, Dustin Manz would score his second goal of the season at the 8:14 mark of the middle period when he was set up by Gianluca Esteves and Evgeny Yakovlev. Esteves has quietly been a leading force for the team. It was his ninth point on the season.
For those who were thinking that Mareks Mitens was going to get another shutout going into the third period, they jinxed it. Solomon was called for elbowing at 4:16 into the final period. Evan Somoza and Aaron Murray would set up Artsiom Anosau for his first goal of the season when Anosau beat Mitens to put the Generals on the board.
Michael Underwood and Aaron Maguyon would add the Rebels fourth and fifth goal respectively to give the Rebels the 5 – 1 win. Mitens would save 15 of the 16 shots he faced while Fessenden would save 34 of the 39 shots. Click here for the box score.
The two teams are back at it today in a 2:00pm matinee at IceWorks. After today the two won’t face each other until February 17.
