For whatever the reason, the Aston Rebels do not match up well against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights. After thumping the Knights the night before, the Rebels got off to a 3 to 1 lead and then the wheels fell off. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton came back to win 5 to 3 and take two of three games against the Rebels this weekend.
Frank Spellman opened the scoring for the Rebels. With 6:46 into the opening period, Brennan Kapcheck passed the puck to Andrew Bellant who found Spellman who beat Knights goalie Grant Valentine. It was Spellman’s eleventh goal on the season.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton came back to tie it when Dmitriy Zaitsev beat Rebels goalie Trevor Micucci, who was starting his second consecutive game. Then Evgeny Yakovlev scored his ninth goal of the season with assists from Kristofers Bindulis and Dean Balsamo. With less than a minute left in the first, Dom Garcia was set up by Michael Merulla and Ryan Cusin to give the Rebels a 3 to 1 lead heading into the first period intermission.
With six minutes left in the second period, Bindulis was called for charging putting the Knights on the power play. Braden Brown and Jacob Hamacher set up Zach Remers who beat Micucci for the visiting team’s second goal of the night.
The game changed extremely quickly into the third when Zaitsev and Hamacher set up Paul DeNaples who put the puck pass Micucci tying the game at three.
The Rebels applied pressure but couldn’t beat Valentine. Then Braden Brown entered into the zone and passed it to Hamacher. Hamacher made a nice feed to Blake Busch who light the lamp giving the Knights a 4 to 3 lead. The Knights added an empty net goal for a 5 to 3 victory. Valentine had 36 saves on 39 shots while Micucci had 29 saves on 33 shots. Click here for the box score.
