SEWELL, NJ- After a 10-day layoff, the Philadelphia Rebels (18-22-1-1, 38 pts) returned to action Tuesday night with a 5-2 defeat to the Maryland Black Bears (30-11-4-0, 64 pts) in their only home game of February. It was the Rebels’ first game against Maryland since a weekend series back in December.
The Rebels found themselves down early in this game after Gunnar VanDamme scored on an early Maryland power play.
Trailing by a pair, 3-1, approaching the halfway point of the third, Connor Sedlak scored his 15th goal of the season on the power play. The goal capped off a two-point night. David Deputy added another assist, also his second point of the game.
Shortly after, a Maryland goal extended the Black Bears’ lead back to two and the Rebels were unable to claw all the way back.
Back in the second, Philadelphia had a chance at tying the game on a power play, but they gave up a short-handed goal by Brayden Stannard to fall into a 2-0 hole. Less than a minute after the short-handed goal by Maryland, Tyler Stern found the back of the net to cut the Rebels’ deficit to one. Deputy and Sedlak recorded assists on Stern’s eighth goal of the season.
The Rebels would head into the final period trailing by one.
Kareem El Bashir got the scoring started in the final period, pushing the Black Bears’ lead to 3-1. After a slow start on the powerplay in this game, Philadelphia was able to capitalize on their fourth try with Sedlak’s tally and cut the deficit back to one.
An empty-net goal late, sealed the game for the Black Bears.
The Rebels will head down to Maryland this weekend for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday night looking to rebound with two more against the Black Bears. Both games can be seen on Hockey TV starting at 7:30 p.m.
