PITTSTON, Penn. – The Titans gritted out a 4-3 victory against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights that saw 22 penalties for 104 total penalty minutes.
It came down to the final minutes as the Knights thought they had come within one with less than three-minutes to play. The puck was still coming loose when the referee blew his whistle while the out of sight rebound was put in the net. With the play frozen, the goal was waved off.
Despite the good luck for the Titans, the Knights were able to put the puck past a sprawled out Spencer Wright just seconds later off the faceoff. With 2:18 left in regulation, setting up a nail-biting finish that the Titans were able to hold on to.
There were 92 penalty minutes between the two teams. The bulk of the minutes came from two fights and a scrum behind the Knights’ cage as the buzzer sounded.
Garrett Hallford opened the scoring with his sixth goal of the season after finding himself alone in the left circle. Darren Brady and Brad Becker each recorded assists.
The Knights were able to equalize just over 10 minutes later off the stick of Zach Remers as he snuck one through Spencer Wright’s five hole.
The second period was much calmer as there were only two penalties and one goal, all of which belonged to Mike Gelatt. Jesse Farabee connected with Gelatt as the Middletown native accelerated up the left wing and from the faceoff dot, snapped a shot past Valentine for his sixth goal of the season.
The Titans were able to kill off both of the second period penalties as well.
Once again, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton tied the game, but the Titans got two unanswered goals less than two minutes apart at 7:11 and 8:48 of the third period respectively.
Ray Brice’s 14th of the season at 7:11 put the Titans back in the lead for the third time in the game. Brice connected with a shot through the five hole of Grant Valentine who had been moving side to side after Dakoda Menslage and Joe Shuler went tape to tape.
Then the game-winner was created off of a turnover by the Knights in front of their own net. Becker earned his second assist of the night as he was able to find Victor Ostling wide open to burry the puck in a wide open net.
With the Johnstown 2-1 victory over the Aston, the Titans are now back in first place in the East Division by one point with 52. Aston and Johnstown are tied for second place with 51 points.
The Titans will go for the weekend sweep tomorrow night as they return home to Middletown Ice World for a 7:30 p.m. meeting with the Knights.