SEWELL, NJ – On Friday night, the Philadelphia Rebels (4-9-0-1, 9 pts) opened up a two-game series at home with the Maine Nordiques (7-7-0-0, 14 pts) with a 5-2 defeat.
The Rebels found themselves in a 3-0 hole during the second period and could not fully climb out of it.
The Nordiques opened the scoring with Tony Achille beating Jakub Krbecek from the far circle with 5:41 left to play in the first period. Up to that point, the Rebels had been controlling play, spending a considerable amount of time in the Nordiques’ zone. Achille’s goal was the only scored in the first period by either team.
Aidan Coupe extended the Nordiques’ lead to 2-0 with 16:59 remaining in the second by going bar-down on Krbecek.
Coupe’s tally began a surge of second period goals from both teams.
Shortly after Maine’s third tally, Klaus Jogi was denied on a breakaway by goaltender Kael Depape. On the ensuing faceoff, Connor Sedlak deflected a Luke deVries shot to put Philadelphia on the board with his fourth goal of the year. Sedlak’s goal was assisted by deVries and Max Hamstad.
Maine’s answer came from Patrick Schmiedlin just a few minutes later on a two-on-one rush.
Not long after that, it was Bryce Strand bringing the Rebels back to within two goals, making the score 4-2. He scored on a two-on-one break for the Rebels, with the assists coming from David Deputy and Tyler Stern with 3:28 remaining in the second period. It was Strand’s first career goal.
Kellen Murphy opened the scoring in the third period for Maine. He took a cross-crease pass and dunked it home, extending Maine’s lead to 5-2 with 13:40 remaining. Murphy’s goal was the only goal of the third period.
Philadelphia will look to rebound Saturday when it finishes the weekend series against the Nordiques. The opening faceoff is at 8 p.m. and the game can be streamed on HockeyTV.
