Anthony Calafiore broke two franchise records with a goal and an assist in the Titans 4 – 1 win over the visiting Northeast Generals to complete a two-game sweep between the teams.
The Staten Island, NY native’s goal at 6:18 into the second period gave him career number 63 to become the franchise’s all-time leading goal scorer (breaking Kyle Jeffers 62) and his assist on Brendan Dumas’s goal made him the all-time point leader with 139 (Jeffers 138).
What a difference a week makes. Last weekend the Titans went into Maine tied with the Nordiques for second place with 65 points. After sweeping a pair of games against Maine and Northeast and beating Danbury, the Titans now have a stranglehold on the second spot in the division and lead Maine by ten points.
After a scoreless first period, Northeast’s Ryan Schelling opened the scoring at 3:39 into the middle stanza when he took a wrist shot from the near side faceoff circle that beat Titans netminder Zak Brice high, short side for Schelling’s eleventh goal of the season.
Calafiore’s historic goal tied the game two and a half minutes later. After Dominik Bartecko picked up the loose puck along the near side half wall, he passed it up to Johnny McMahon. As McMahon gained the line and skated to the faceoff dot, he made a centering pass out front that was redirected by Calafiore and past Generals goalie Toby Hopp for Calafiore’s twentieth goal of the season.
At 3:16 into the third, Northeast’s Joe Schubert was called for slashing to give the Titans the man advantage. Thirty-six seconds later Dumas gave the Titans a 2 – 1 lead. Calafiore picked up the loose puck inside the Generals zone at the far side corner and passed it back to Eric Charpentier at the point, Charpentier passed it over to Dumas on his right, and Dumas took a wrist shot from just inside the near side faceoff circle that beat Hopp high, long side for his fifteenth goal of the season.
Dominick Bartecko made it 3 – 1 at 5:41 into the final period. After the Generals dumped the puck into the Titans zone, it was picked up by Sylas Oberting at the end wall and he made a backhanded pass to Leo Schwartz at the near side faceoff circle. Schwartz made a long bounce pass off the far side boards right to Bartecko who walked in all alone on Hopp and Bartecko fired the biscuit through Hopp’s five hole for Bartecko’s fiftheenth goal of the season.
Marcus Sang made it 4 – 1 with 6:11 remaining in the game to close out the scoring.
Brice stopped 27 of 28 shots while Hopp turned aside 26 of 30. Click here for the complete box score.
The Titans now have four games remaining in the ’22-’23 season with all of them on the road. Unless Maryland loses their last two games, the Titans will come in second place. They will secure second place next weekend should they take one of two games against the third place Nordiques.