Titans down Nordiques 4 – 1 with balanced attack

Oct 24, 2021

The Titans used a balanced attached last night to lead them to a 4 – 1 win over the visiting Maine Nordiques and to complete the weekend sweep.

Rookie defenseman Colin Grable scored his first junior career goal with 4:22 remaining in the first period to open the scoring. Tommy Bannister picked up the loose puck at the top of the far side blueline just inside the offensive zone. Bannister made a cross-ice pass to Grable who had pinched in the zone to help. Grable went behind and around the Maine net, and as he started to come out, he took a sharp angle shot the beat Nordiques goaltender Gus Holt short side to give the Titans a 1 – 0 lead.

The Nordiques tied the game a minute later. Playing four-on-four hockey, Maine’s Matthew Connor picked up the loose puck at his own far side half wall and sent a bounce pass off the boards and into the offensive zone as Maine’s Reese Farrell entered the Titans zone on a two-on-one with Tyler Gaulin. As Farrell picked up the loose puck at the faceoff circle, he made a pass to Gaulin on his left and in the slot. Gaulin redirected the puck past Red Buckets netminder Andrew Takacs to make it a 1 – 1 game.

The Titans regained the lead at 5:21 into the second period. Brendan Dumas came out of a scrum in Maine’s near side corner and sent a pass back to Tyler Sanborn at the far point. In what looked to be a shot on net from Sanborn was actually a designed play. The defenseman took a low line shot to Anthony Calafiore in the slot and Calafiore redirected the shot past Holt and into the net for his fourth goal of the season.

Blake Farrell doubled the Titans lead at 2:40 into the third period. Marcus Sang, who had his first junior career hat trick the night before, came away with the loose puck behind the Nordiques zone and passed it to Anthony Mollica in the slot. Mollica took a shot that was blocked out front, but the rebound came back to Farrell who turned and threw the puck on net that found its way through a screen and past Holt for his second goal of the season.

Four minutes later, Brendan Dumas made it a 4 – 1 game and to close out the scoring. Calafiore muscled a Nordiques’ defender off the puck at the top of the slot inside the offensive zone and then passed it to Dumas on his left. As Dumas went to the net, he passed the puck to Bannister on his right and Bannister sent a return pass to Dumas through the slot and Dumas slammed past Holt and into the net for his fifth goal of the season.

Takacs stopped 30 of 31 shots in the win while Holt turned aside 39 of 43 in defeat. Click here for the box score.

The Titans will now travel to Johnstown next weekend to play the Tomahawks for a two-game series.