The “visiting” New Jersey Titans fell to the Northeast Generals 6 – 3 last night enabling the two teams to split the weekend series.
The Generals took a three-goal lead just seven minutes into the game and the Titans weren’t able to overcome that large of a deficit.
Alex Davis scored just 1:04 into the game to give the Generals the early lead. Northeast’s Brent Keefer won the draw at the Titans near side faceoff circle and sent the puck back to Davis at the point who took a snapshot that found its way through a maze out front and past New Jersey netminder Berk Berkeliev to make it a 1 – 0 game.
Joseph Schubert was called for an equipment violation (his helmet came off and he continued to play without it) at 3:16 in the first to give the Generals the man advantage. A little over a minute later Northeast capitalized on the opportunity.
The Generals Ricky Boysen picked up the loose puck at the half wall inside the Titans zone and made a cross-ice pass to Aidan Curran. Curran sent a pass back to Davis and the top of the point who passed the puck over to Tyler Davis at the near side faceoff dot. Davis took a one-timer that beat Berkeliev high, short side to give the Generals a 2 – 0 lead.
To kick start his team, head coach Craig Doremus pulled Berkeliev and replaced him with Loudon Hogg at the 4:28 mark of the opening period.
Less then three minutes later Liam McCanney gave the Generals a commanding 3 – 0 lead. Curran picked up the loose puck at the top of his own faceoff circle and passed it up to a breaking McCanney along the far side boards. McCanney gained the line and skated in all alone on Hogg and beat him stick side for his team high twelfth goal of the season.
Anthony Calafiore put the Titans on the board at 9:06 of the first. With the Titans pressuring in the offensive zone, Nick Seitz picked up the loose puck behind the Generals net and skated back up to the top of the slot. As he went towards the far side boards, he sent a pass back to Calafiore who took a wrist shot that beat Generals netminder Anton Castro to make it a 3 – 1 game.
Jake LaRusso pulled the Titans within one with 3:36 left in the period. With the Titans pressuring in the offensive zone, Matthew Iasenza picked up the loose puck at the far side half wall and sent it back to Evan Werner at the point. Werner took a shot that was saved by Castro, but the rebound popped up and LaRusson knocked it down and past Castro for his fifth goal of the season.
Alexander Tertyshny scored at 6:10 into the middle period to give the Generals a 4 – 2 lead. Matthew Yeager and David Andreychuk added goals to give Northeast a 6 – 2 lead but Blake Humphrey scored his first goal as a Titan with twenty-five seconds remaining to make it a 6 – 3 game.
Berkeliev and Hogg combined to stop 19 of 25 shots while Castro turned aside 33 of 36. Click here for the box score.
The Titans will host the Maine Nordiques next weekend for a two-game series beginning Friday night at 7:30PM.