The New Jersey Titans swept the weekend series against the New Hampshire Mountain Kings last weekend, securing an important four points in the standings and finishing their first season series with a perfect 4-0 record.
Friday night began with the Titans scoring first for the fourth straight game with Dominick Bartecko’s 15th of the season less than five minutes after the opening faceoff. Jack Hillier doubled the lead at the beginning of the second period for his 8th of the year, and Dominick Rivelli added a power play marker halfway through the period to make it 3-0. Three minutes later, New Jersey made it 4-0 when Kai Elkie took advantage of a turnover in the New Hampshire zone caused by Ethan Wongus for his 4th of the year. The Mountain Kings would spoil Zak Brice’s bid for a shutout when they got one back towards the end of the period, but Rivelli’s second on the power play in the third restored the four goal lead, and the Titans won 5-1. Bartecko had a three point night, and the newest Titan, Lucas Marshall, recorded his first point in New Jersey.
Zak Brice would lead the Titans onto the ice once more Saturday night, and New Jersey again took an early lead when Rivelli put home a Johnny McMahon rebound 3:39 into the game. Arhip Sidarovich went coast to coast four minutes later and put in his own rebound to put the Titans up by two. New Hampshire cut the lead in half shortly thereafter, but Sidarovich scored his second of the game and 6th of the year in the final minutes of the period to send New Jersey into the first intermission up 3-1. Again the Mountain Kings drew within a goal, but Nikita Meshcheryakov scored on the power play 17 seconds into the third period to give New Jersey the 4-2 lead. Wongus added his 12th of the season later in the third, giving the Titans a 5-2 victory.
With the weekend sweep, New Jersey goes into an idle weekend tied for 5th place in the division with the Northeast Generals with a record of 21-18-2. Next up for the Titans, they’ll look to avenge last week’s loss to Danbury when they face the Jr Hat Tricks on Tuesday, February 13th, at 7:30pm.