Jonathan Bendorf’s three-point game helped lead the Philadelphia Rebels to a 5 – 3 victory over the visiting Northeast Generals to keep the Rebels undefeated with an 11 – 0 record on the season.
You missed a lot of the first period if you blinked. The Rebels got off to an extremely fast start just 2:08 into the game when Bendorf received a nice feed from Carter Woolley and took a wrist shot that beat Generals goalie Marko Sturma to give the Rebels a 1 – 0 lead.
Five minutes later Bendorf beat Sturma again on an unassisted goal to give the Rebels a 2 – 0. It was Bendorf’s third goal on the season.
Then one minute later at the 8:23 mark of the opening period the Rebels went up 3 – 0. Aaron Maguyon was working the play downlow when he sent a pass to the top of the near side faceoff circle to Bryant Gunn. Gunn took a shot that was redirected by Zerban in the slot that went passed Sturma for his fourth goal on the season. Northeast then changed goalies replacing Sturma with David Fessenden. Sturma had allowed three goals on eight shots.
Twenty-five seconds later Generals defenseman Patrick Harrington was called for a delay of game putting the Rebels on their first power play of the evening. With time winding down with the extra attacker, Ryan Patrick won the draw deep inside the Generals zone and the puck went back to the point to Carson Moniz. Moniz would pass the puck to the top of the near side faceoff circle to Andrew Bellant who immediately passed the biscuit downlow to Maguyon. Maugyon would pass it back to Moniz at the point who immediately sent a pass over to Bendorf on his right. Bendorf would pass it to Patrick at the top of the slot and Patrick took a wrist shot that was saved by Fessenden but Bellant picked up the rebound and put it in the net to give the Rebels a 4 – 0.
Despite being down 4 – 0 just ten minutes into the game, the Generals didn’t give up. Justin Jallen would score the visitor’s first goal of the game with 4:24 left in the first period. Rebels defenseman Ivan Komarovskii retrieved the puck deep inside his own zone after the Generals had dumped it in for a line change. Komarovskii would bring the puck behind his own net and sent an ill-advised pass up along the far side boards where it was intercepted by Luke Perunovich at the point. Perunovich sent a pass to Harrington who was behind the Rebels goalline. Harrington made a nice pass to a wide open Jallen in the slot and beat Rebels goalie Eli Billing to make it a 4 – 1 game.
The Generals would cut the Rebels lead in half with 1:08 left in the period. Louis Boudon would bring the puck inside the Rebels zone and would skate around the Rebels net. As he circled the net Boudon would throw a pass back to the point to Harrington. Harrington sent a pass back to the end boards to Anthony Quatieri who immediately sent a touch pass to Boudon in the slot. Boudon took a wrist shot that dribbled through Billing’s legs and into the net to make it a 4 – 2 game.
The Generals would make it a one goal game just 2:29 into the second period. Northeast had dumped the puck into the Rebels zone where it was picked up by Komarovskii. The Moscow native sent a pass behind his own net to Kolby Vegara. Vegara started to skate the puck up the far side boards and went to pass the puck to Bellant at the point but it was intercepted by Alex Cohen and the Generals forward skated in all alone on Billing and beat him high, glove side to make it a 4 – 3 game.
Then play started to even out for the rest of the second period. As the third period began the Rebels completely shut down the Generals preventing them from having any shots in the final stanza.
The Rebels would close out the scoring with 6:47 left in regulation. Bendorf skated hard after the puck once it was dumped deep inside the Generals zone where he was met by Matthew Wiesner. Wiesner went to skate behind his own net but he was buried by Eric Olson. Olson would pick up the puck and send it back to Vegara at the point. Vegara would take a shot on net that was saved by Fessenden but Auggie Moore picked up the rebound to make it a 5 – 3 game.
The win puts the Rebels two points behind the Generals for first place with five games in hand.
Billing stopped 13 of 15 shots while Sturma and Fessenden combined to turn aside 29 of 34 shots. Click here for the box score.
The Rebels now have week off and won’t play their next game until Wednesday, October 25 at 2:30pm when they visit the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights.
