Charles Panchisin and Shawn Ramsey scored in a shootout to give the visiting Rebels to a 5 – 4 win over the Maine Nordiques in a seesaw game.
“I’m proud of the group,” stated Rebels head coach Justin Hale. “They stuck with it, stuck together, and found a way to come out on top,” said Hale.
The Rebels took a commanding two-goal lead within the first seven minutes of the game. Maine’s Aiden Dixon was called for holding to give Philadelphia the man advantage. Just twenty-one seconds later captain Luke deVries gave the visitors a 1 – 0 lead. After the Nordiques dumped the biscuit behind the Rebels net where it was set up by Lukas Fursten who left it for deVries. The Stratford, AK native brought the puck out of his zone and made a long cross-ice pass to Panchisin just outside the Nordiques end. As Panchisin gained the line, he made a backdoor pass from the far side faceoff dot to deVries in the slot and deVries redirected the puck past Maine’s netminder Thomas Heaney and into the net for deVries first goal of the season.
Ramsey gave the Rebels a two-goal lead at 7:03 of the first period. After Max Hamstad won the draw deep inside the Nordiques zone, the puck went back to Ramsey at the point. Ramsey walked the line going to his left and he took a wrist shot from the top of the near side circle that beat Heaney low, glove side for Ramsey’s first goal of the season.
The Nordiques came back and scored two goals within the last two minutes and thirty seconds of the first period to even the game.
Maine’s Charles Tardif brought the puck into the Rebels zone along the near side boards and made a backhanded pass through the slot to Kellen Murphy at the far side hash marks. Murphy cut towards the center and took a snapshot that beat Fursten glove side to cut the Rebels lead in half with 2:29 left in the period.
Thirty-three seconds later Maine’s John Paul Steel knotted the score at two when he took a wrist shot from the top of the slot that found its way through a screen and past Fursten for Steel’s second goal of the season.
Jack Fialkoff replaced Fursten between the pipes at the start of the second period. The Rebels then regained the lead on Kris Samitis’ fifth goal of the season at 9:33 into the middle stanza. As the Rebels powerplay was expiring, deVries brought the puck into the offensive zone. As he gained the line, he passed the biscuit to Jared Coccimiglio on his right. Coccimiglio made a cross-ice pass to Samitis who took a one-timer from the far side faceoff dot that beat Heaney to make it a 3 – 2 game.
Murphy scored his second of the game, a powerplay goal, with thirty-eight seconds left in the middle stanza when he took a wrist shot from the top of the far side faceoff circle that beat Fialkoff for Murphy’s ninth goal of the season.
Maine made it 4 – 3 just 4:25 into the third period when Jack Kurrie picked up the rebound in front of the net and slammed it past Fialkoff to give the Nordiques their only lead of the game.
The Rebels evened the score at four at 8:39 into the final period on Otto Polakovs’ fifth goal of the season after he took a backdoor pass from Panchisin and redirected the puck past Heaney.
After regulation ended even at four, both teams had their chances in overtime, but Heaney and Fialkoff made several outstanding saves to keep their respective team in the game and send it into a shootout.
Fialkoff stopped both shooters he faced in the shootout while Panchisin and Ramsey hit the back of the net to give the Rebels the victory.
Fursten and Fialkoff combined to stop 31 of 35 shots while Heaney turned aside 34 of 38. Click here for the complete box score.
The teams will play game two of this two-game series tonight at 7:00PM at The Colisee.