Linas Dedinas, Brayton Frick and Ruslan Jamaldinov scored to lead the Rebels to a 3 – 1 win over the visiting Maryland Black Bears in game one of this two-game home-and-home series.
With both coaches looking to evaluate their players, many returners were scratched giving the new additions the opportunity to play, and two new Rebels – Dedinas and Jamaldinov – capitalized on the chance.
Dedinas opened the scoring at 7:19 into the first period. Ryan Vaites started the play behind his own net and skated to the slot and made a long stretch pass to Dedinas just outside the Maryland end along the near side boards. As Dedinas gained the line, he went towards the slot, and deked around Maryland’s goalie Logan Hughes and backhanded the biscuit up and over the fallen netminder and into the back of the net to make it 1 – 0.
Maryland’s Kieran Litterick evened the score at one just 2:37 into the middle stanza when he intercepted a Dedinas pass at center ice. After gaining the line, Litterick took a low-line shot that beat Crudale five hole.
The Rebels regained the lead with 1:27 remaining in the second. Drew Belleson set up the play just outside his own near side blueline and made a cross-ice pass to Arhip Sidarovich who pitched-forked the puck up to Frick just outside the offensive zone. As Frick gained the line, he took a wrist shot that beat Maryland goaltender Ethan Ramonetti long side to make it 2 – 1.
Jamaldinov scored an insurance goal with 1:03 remaining in the game when he picked up the loose puck at center ice and walked in all alone on Ramonetti and deked around to the goalie’s left and backhanded the biscuit up and over the netminder to close out the scoring and make it 3 – 1.
Hughes and Ramonetti combined to stop 23 of 26 shots. Click here for the complete box score.
Game two of this home-and-home pre-season series will be tomorrow night at 7:00PM when the Rebels travel to the Piney Orchard Arena to play the Black Bears.
