The Rebels celebrated their first ever regular season home game with a thrilling 3-2 victory in overtime against the Johnstown Tomahawks when Jerry Miettuten beat Tomahawks goalie Jacob Gwillim with three minutes left in the extra period.
After the opening ceremonies concluded, the Tomahawks went on the attack and at the 13:32 mark of the first period, Luke Lynch tucked in a rebound past Rebels goalie Darion Hanson who had thought the puck was underneath him. A minute later Johnstown went up 2-0 when the Tomahawks Tommy Horn scored on a power play goal that was redirected at the last second beating Hanson.
Despite being down 2-0 entering the second stanza, the Rebels didn’t give up. Evgeny Yakovlev fed line mate Dean Balsamo with a nice pass who cut across the middle and beat Gwillim shortside.
As the game began to wind down in the third period, the Rebels threw a lot of rubber at Gwillim to try and even the score. When head coach Joe Coombs pulled Hanson for the extra attacker, Kristofers Bindlus was set up by Andrew Zerban and Gvido Jansons and beat Gwillim with thirty four seconds left in the game sending the vocal crowd into frenzy and the game into overtime.
As the three-on-three five minute overtime began, both teams had some scoring chances but then Miettuten took a nice pass from Zerban and beat Gwillim two minutes into the extra period.
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The Rebels would like to thank the Wilmington Nighthawks for the photo.
