After a hard fought game on Friday night, the Aston Rebels traveled on the Northeast Extension for approximately an hour and forty five minutes to take on the vastly improved Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights. The Knights are no longer pushovers and it showed. It was a tight game played throughout.
The Knights’ Stephen Kelly took a pass from Zed Dietrich and beat Rebels goalie Trevor Micucci at the 15:09 mark of the first period. It was the only goal of the opening stanza.
Thirty five seconds into the second period the Knights went up 2-0 when Blake Busch scored on assists from Jimmy Elser and Dorian Dawson. The Rebels then found the back of the net when Connor Jean beat Knights goalie Andrey Svistunov at 8:29 into the period with assists from Andrew Bellant and newcomer Jensen Zerban (Andrew’s younger brother).
Trailing 2-1 going into the third, Michael Merulla tied the game at 3:09 with an assist from defenseman Brennan Kapcheck. The Rebels then took the lead when Kristofers Bindulis beat Svistunov at the 8:22 mark with assists from Captain Austin Swingle and Michael Underwood. With less than four minutes left in the game, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Tanner Bennett beat Micucci to send the game into overtime.
After a back and forth overtime with both teams having changes to win it, the game went into a shootout.
The Knights’ Braden Brown scored first then the Rebels Ryan Cusin scored to set up the dramatics. Jensen Zerban, playing in his first game, beat Svistunov to put the Rebels in the lead. Then the Knights’ Tanner Bennett was denied by Micucci giving the Rebels a 4-3 victory. Micucci finished with 33 saves.
It was the team’s fifth straight win and eleventh out of the last thirteen games. The team is second in the East Division with 24 points, three less then division leader New Jersey Titans. Click here for the box score.
The Rebels have two very important home games against the Titans on Veterans Appreciation Weekend on Friday, November 13 and Saturday, November 14.
