The New Jersey Titans gave up two goals late in the third period as they fell to the Northeast Generals by a score of 5-3 on Sunday at the New England Sports Village.
Despite outshooting the Generals 42-35, New Jersey was unable to sweep the two-game set and fell to a 14-12-2 record. Northeast improves its season mark to 17-14-1.
Marko Sturma got the nod for the Generals today and stopped 39 of 42 shots while Brandon Perrone made 31 saves on 35 shots in the losing effort.
New Jersey jumped to a 1-0 lead at 8:07 of the first period when Jimmy Dowd Jr. scored his first goal as a Titan. Working on the team’s second power play opportunity, he took a shot from the point that glanced off a stick and trickled past Generals’ goaltender Marko Sturma and into the net. The rookie defender now has three points this season (1g, 2a), all of which coming in the month of December.
The lead lasted just over four minutes, as Brendan White evened the score on a sharp-angle shot. He raced down the right side of the Titans’ end and took a backhander that slipped by Perrone, earning his first goal with the Generals.
Northeast continued its momentum in the second period as Wiesner put his team ahead early in the second. He darted in the zone from the right side, cut to the middle and beat Perrone with a low shot for his 13th goal of the season at 1:27 of the period. Chris Garbe and Kyle Jeffers had a couple of chances to respond for the Titans on the power play, including a 2-on-0 and a goalmouth scramble, but were unable to get the puck by Sturma.
Wade Novak broke through and tied the game after Tate Singleton fed him a nifty pass in the left faceoff circle. Novak’s shot went over the glove of Sturma as he picked up his sixth goal of the season at 15:50.
Just before the second period ended, Northeast went back on the power play and regained the lead. Matt Demelis took the puck and stormed up the neutral zone, made a toe drag around a defender and tucked his shot into the top corner for his sixth goal of the season.
Matthew Cameron continued the tug-of-war match and evened the score at 2:36 of the third period as he raced into the Generals’ zone and beat Sturma high-glove side for his seventh goal of the season. With that third-period tally, the RPI commit now has four goals and two assists in his last six games.
The Generals took the lead back once and for all late in the period, as Colin McCabe tapped in a cross-crease feed from Mike Egan on a two-on-one. The goal put the Generals ahead with 2:14 remaining in the game. Perrone was eventually pulled for the extra attacker, but Justin Jallen tacked on an empty-netter with 1:03 left on the clock to seal the Generals’ 5-3 victory. Both teams are now 5-5-0 in the season series against each other.
As the calendar year winds down, the Titans will look to improve its consistency. This is the fourth time in a row the Titans have won the first game in a back-to-back and lost the following day. The last time New Jersey won two games in a row was November 5 and 10 against the Tomahawks and Rebels, respectively.
Fortunately for New Jersey, its stretch of seven consecutive road games has come to an end and will return to Middletown this Wednesday with a game against the Philadelphia Rebels. With a 7 p.m. puck drop, the contest will also be the Titans’ final game of 2017 before the holiday break.