Andrew Takacs stopped all 30 shots he faced to help lead the Titans to a 3 – 0 win over the Maine Nordiques last night at the Middletown Sports Complex. The victory completed the Red Buckets weekend sweep over the Nordiques, and this season so far, the Titans have defeated Maine all eight times they have played.
It was the Titans, and Takacs’, first shutout of the season. It was New Jersey’s first shutout since March 6, 2021, when Christian Stoever had a 38 save blanking of the Maryland Black Bears.
After a scoreless first period, defenseman Eric Charpentier got the eventual game winner with 8:43 remaining in the second period. Chris Carroll had the puck slightly behind the Nordiques net and made a backhanded pass to Levente Keresztes at the near side half wall. Keresztes took a shot that was blocked by a Nordique but the puck came out to Charpentier at the top of the point. Charpentier skated towards the top of the slot and toward a wrist shot that beat Nordiques goaltender Gus Holt glove side for his first goal of the season.
With 9:06 remaining in the third period, Maine’s Filip Wiberg was called for slashing to give the Titans the man advantage. Thirty-seven seconds later Carroll doubled the Titans lead. After Carroll won the draw deep inside the Nordiques zone, he passed the puck to Brendan Dumas on his right. As Dumas was skating towards the nearside corner, he made a return pass to Carroll. Carroll went behind the Nordiques net. As Carroll started to skate towards the left of Holt, Carrol threw a shot on net that went off Holt’s pads and into the net for Carroll’s sixth goal of the season.
Since arriving in a mid-November trade with the North Iowa Bulls, Carroll is averaging 1.5 points per game as a Titan.
David Posma scored an empty net goal with forty-nine second left in the game to close out the scoring.
Holt stopped 35 of 37 shots. Click here for the box score.
The Titans, who have five games remaining of a seven game homestand, will face the Northeast Generals next weekend. Four of the five Titans next home games will be played against Northeast, with whom the Titans have not played since the teams split a weekend series back in October 15 and 16 in Attleboro, MA.