The Rebels were hoping to win all three home games this weekend but came up short. They wanted to give the active crowd a nice Christmas present on the team’s first Teddy Bear Toss but Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knight forward Bradon Brown had a night to remember scoring four goals to lead the visiting team to a 5-2 victory.
The game started off well for the home team. Michael Merulla passed it to Dom Garcia who found Ryan Cusin on the wing. Cusin took a shot that beat Knights’ goalie Andrey Svistunov at 12:21 of the first period prompting the crowd to throw their teddy bears onto the ice. Well over a 1,000 teddy bears strewn on the ice while the players helped pick them up. All the bears were donated to the Toys for Tots in memory of Aston resident Scott Jones.
Once play resumed, it didn’t take long for the Knights to tie the score. Austin Swingle took an unsportsmanlike penalty sending the visitors on the power play. Carson Knop and Blake Busch found Brown who scored his first goal of the game beating Rebels goalie Darion Hanson at 13:43.
With the score tied at 1 heading into the second period, Brown made sure he wanted his team to head into the break on a high note. He intercepted a pass and walked in on Hanson beating him bar down to give the Knights a 2-1 lead. At the 15:01 mark Carter Woolley took a tripping penalty. Then the Rebels were called for too many men on the ice. With the Knights on a 5 on 3 power play, Jacob Hamacher blocked a clearing pass, took control of the puck and beat Hanson for a 3-1 lead.
Mike Merulla made things interesting when Cusin and Jerry Miettuten set him up for the Rebels second goal. But Brown took control. With Mason Van Tuyl in the box for tripping, Brown scored his third goal of the game unassisted at 11:20 of the final period. Brown ended his night on another power play goal with almost two minutes remaining in the game.
The Rebels 16 penalties didn’t help the team’s cause nor Hanson’s. The goalie finish up with 25 saves on the evening. Click here for the box score.
The Rebels head into the break with a 19-11 record and 38 points, two points behind East Division leader New Jersey Titans. The Rebels next home game will be on Saturday, January 2, 2016 at 7:00pm against the Fairbanks Ice Dogs.
