Third period dooms Rebels in 4 – 1 loss to Mountain Kings

Oct 15, 2023

The expansion New Hampshire Mountain Kings scored four, third period goals en route to a 4 – 1 win over the visiting Rebels to complete the weekend sweep of the teams.

Tyler Stern scored the Rebels lone goal.

Although the contest was scoreless after two periods, it was very hard fought in which Rebels netminder Lukas Fursten and his counterpart from New Hampshire Cooper Rautenstrauch had to make several Grade A saves to keep it a scoreless game. 

The Mountain Kings’ Sean Bradley broke the scoreless game just twenty-seven seconds into the third period. Brock Jones’ high sticking call with 1:09 remaining in the middle stanza carried over into the final period enabling New Hampshire to start the new period with the man advantage.

New Hampshire’s Tommy McDonough had the puck at the top of the near side faceoff circle and passed it over to Landon Steffen on his right. Steffen took a shot from just inside the far side faceoff circle that was saved by Fursten, but the rebound fell right to Bradley on the doorstep and Bradley slammed the puck into the net to make it a 1 – 0 game.

The Mountain Kings’ Will Murphy was called for slashing at 6:01 of the third. Twenty-six seconds later Stern tied the game. After successive saves by Rautenstrauch, a rebound came out to Greg Spitznagel who took a shot that was blocked out front, but puck came right out to Stern who jammed the biscuit into the back of the net for his third goal of the season.

Brandon Spaulding gave New Hampshire a 2 – 1 lead at 8:09 into the period. After the Mountain Kings’ Jack Costanzo gained the offensive zone line, he passed the puck to Nick Reif on his right. Reif started to skate up along the far side boards and took a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle that was saved by Fursten but the rebound came right out to Spaulding – who was to the right of Fursten – and Spaulding lifted the puck into the back of the net for his third of the season.

New Hampshire went up 3 – 1 with 8:13 remaining. Playing with a 5 on 3 advantage, McDonough kept the puck in the Rebels zone at the top of the far side point. McDonough passed it down low to Steffen who sent a return pass to McDonough. McDonough passed the puck over to Damon Bossie on his left and Bossie took a one-timer that beat Fursten short side for Bossie’s second goal of the season.

The Mountain Kings’ Linas Dedinas closed out the scoring with an empty net goal at the 18:25 mark of the final period to make it 4 – 1.

Fursten stopped 30 of 33 shots while Rautenstrauch turned aside 26 of 27. Click here for the complete box score.

After two weeks on the road, the Rebels will return home next weekend for a two-game series against the first place Northeast Generals.