The New Jersey Titans fell to the Jamestown Rebels for the second consecutive night on Saturday, losing by a score of 6-1 at Northwest Arena.
Niki Jasko scored a hat trick for the Rebels as they improve their record to 31-13-8. Kyler Head picked up the lone goal for the Titans (26-24-1), while starting goaltender Ryan Winter was pulled after giving four goals on 17 shots.
The Rebels jumped to a 1-0 lead when Ryan Winter made a blocker save on a shot from the point, but the puck bounced around to Niki Jasko. He took a backhanded shot that bounced off Ryan Winter and into the net for his fourth goal in his last three games.
Hunter Johannes doubled the lead at 7:46 when he picked up a loose puck, sprinted past the Titans defense and beat Winter for his 12th goal of the year. Kyler Head answered back 11 seconds later when he was sent on a breakaway and snapped a shot past Noah West.
Momentum swung back in Jamestown’s direction one last time when Jimmy Glynn scored two minutes and 30 seconds after Head. Caleb Price took a shot from the point and Glynn buried the rebound at 10:27 of the first period, giving the Rebels a 3-1 lead.
Jasko scored his second goal of the game when he punched in a rebound at 2:27 of the second period. Titans coach Craig Doremus decided to pull Winter and replace him with Brandon Perrone for the rest of the game.
The Rebels continued its onslaught nonetheless, as Jasko completed the hat trick at 4:41 of the second period, making it the Jamestown’s first hat trick of the season. Collin Schmidt finished things off with a power-play goal at 5:30 of the third period. James Crossman made a cross-ice saucer pass right to Schmidt, who ripped a one-timer by Perrone stick-side.
New Jersey finished the game with only 17 shots on goal, capping off a weekend to forget in Jamestown. Between the two losses, the Titans were out-scored by a margin of 11-2 and lost further ground on the second-place Rebels. With nine games remaining in the season, the Titans have a six-point lead over the fourth-place Northeast Generals.
The Titans will return to action on Tuesday night with a contest against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights. It will be the final time these two teams will meet in the regular season, and puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. at Middletown Sports Complex. For those unable to attend the game, it will be available for streaming on hockeytv.com.
Photo Credit: Pete MacDonald (Twitter: @PMacDonald51)