Robert Hyde scored two goals for the visiting Titans last night, but it wasn’t enough as they fell to the Rebels 3 – 2 at the Hollydell Ice Arena in game one of this home-and-home series.
It was the first time in the three games between the teams that the home team won a game in the home-an-home series.
Hyde scored his first goal of the game at the midway point of the opening period to give the Titans a 1 – 0 lead. After Leo Schwartz picked up the loose puck behind his own net, he kicked it up along the near side boards to Ben Yurchuk at the half wall, and Yurchuk immediately passed the biscuit up to Dominik Bartecko at his own blueline. Bartecko then sent the puck into the offensive zone where Hyde swiped the biscuit off of Rebels defenseman Luke deVries. As the puck went towards the slot, Rebels netminder Jakub Krbecek came out to poke it but missed and Hyde shot the biscuit into the empty for his eighth goal of the season.
The Rebels then scored three consecutive goals to take a commanding 3 – 1 lead. Philadelphia’s Connor Sedlak tied the game at one just 1:08 into the middle stanza after he split the Titans two defenders in their own slot and beat the Titans Zak Brice on a semi-breakaway for Sedlak’s thirteenth goal of the season.
Otto Pauls Polakovs gave the Rebels the lead with 7:18 remaining in the second period when he knocked in a rebound that beat Brice for Pauls Polakovs first goal of the season.
Affiliate player Lucas Karlsson was assessed a double minor for high sticking at 3:57 into the third period to give the Rebels the man advantage. With approximately thirty seconds remaining in the powerplay, deVries made a centering pass out front from just below the hash mark in the Titans zone to Tyler Stern who redirected the backdoor pass up and over the fallen Brice and into the net to make it a 3 – 1 game.
The Rebels’ Dylan Blue was called for cross-checking with 9:22 remaining in the third to give the Titans the man advantage. As the powerplay was winding down, Hyde took a slapshot that beat Krbecek short side to close out the scoring and make it a 3 – 2 game.
Brice stopped 20 of 23 shots while Krbecek turned aside 26 of 28. Click here for the complete box score.
The teams will play the second game of this home-and-home series tonight at 7:05PM at the Middletown Sports Complex.