Adam Peck scored twenty-two seconds into overtime to give the visiting Philadelphia Rebels a 2 – 1 win over the New Jersey Titans last night. It was Peck’s fifth game winning goal on the season.
Despite arriving later than expected to Middletown’s Ice World due to the icy road conditions from Philadelphia, the Rebels had some spark in them having taken the first six shots on goal of the game but it was the Titans who scored first on Tyler Antonucci’s eight’s goal on the season at 6:31 into the opening period.
Antonucci would win the battle at the Rebels far side blue line and pass the puck up to Chris Garbe at the top of the slot. Garbe would take a wrist shot that was saved by Eli Billing who was making his sixth straight game in the nets for the Rebels. The rebound would bounce off defenseman Seth Bergeron and up along the near side boards. Zachary Faremouth would pick up the loose puck and pass it over to Antonucci at the top of slot and Antonucci would bury a wrister pass Billing high glove side to give the Titans a 1 – 0 lead. It was Antonucci’s ninth point (second goal) against the Rebels this season.
After a back and forth second period and the Titans clinging onto a one goal lead due in large part to another strong performance in the nets by Brandon Perrone, the Rebels would tie it on a strange goal with 8:25 remaining in the game.
Rebels captain Ryan Patrick would bring the puck deep inside the Titans zone at the end of his shift and slowly move the puck in the corner to allow his teammates to make the line change. While in the corner, Aaron Maguyon would replace Patrick and pick up the puck and send it back to Nico Appendino at the point. Appendino would pass it over to Carson Moniz on his left. Moniz would take a long shot on net that was deflected by Maguyon and the puck would trickle very slowly past Perrone and into the far side of the net to make it a 1 – 1 game.
As the siren sounded to end regulation, this would be the third game out of the last six meetings between these two teams that a game would go into overtime.
In didn’t last long.
After winning the opening draw, the puck would go back to Titans defenseman Eric Manoukian. The former Mercer Chiefs product would bring the puck up along the near side boards where he was stripped off of it by Eric Olson at center ice. Olson would enter the Titans on a 3 on 1 and passed the puck back to a trailing Moniz. Moniz would look to his right and found Peck down low who buried a one-timer pass Perrone to give the Rebels the 2 – 1 win.
Billing turned aside 28 of the 29 shots he faced while Perrone stopped 29 of 31. Click here for the box score.
These two teams will conclude their five-game series, and their seventh out of their last eight games, tonight at 7:00pm at Ice World.
