Right before the holiday break the Rebels hosted the Maryland Black Bears. Jamestown leads the season series at 4-0-1-1. The last time the Black Bears came to the Northwest Arena they gave the Rebels the most goals they have scored in a game (7) and the following night marked the first shutout of the season for Jamestown (4-0). This time, the Rebels were hoping for some early Christmas presents and to tie their longest win-streak at four.
Jamestown came into the weekend with a record of 17-9-2-1 putting them in second place in the East. As for their counterpart, the Black Bears are well below .500 but do hold the last playoff spot with a record of 10-16-3-2. With Wilkes-Barre not playing over the weekend, Maryland would not drop out of fourth place after their set of games against Jamestown, but they were hoping to separate themselves from the bottom two teams and gain ground on New Jersey.
Things started out very well for the Rebels in the first game of the weekend as they scored two goals not even 40 seconds apart. After a dominate first period, Jamestown went into the locker room with their two-goal lead thanks to Alex Frye and Nick Petruolo. They also were outshooting the Black Bears 13-3 after the first 20 minutes. The Rebels came out in the second period with guns blazing as they added two more goals to their total before four minutes had even passed in the middle frame. Jim Glynn made it 3-0 after redirecting Alex Roy’s slap pass on the power play. Then it was Antonio Venuto that picked up the loose puck in the slot and put it home. With a 4-0 lead going into the final period of regulation it seemed that Maryland was down and out. They came out strong in the third period by scoring just 61 seconds into it, ending their goose egg on the board. They followed that up by adding another one, now putting them within a pair of the Rebels. Venuto would score his second of the night on the power play to put his team back up by three. With almost five minutes left in regulation, the Black Bears found the back of the net to now make the score 5-3. The score would remain that way once the horn sounded, giving the Rebels a three-game win streak and snapping the Black Bears three-game win streak.
The next day marked the last game of 2018 for the Rebels and Black Bears. With everyone getting ready to go home in just 24 hours it was a matter of which team came ready to play and which team was already checked out for the holiday break. Both teams made changes to their goalies. In net for the Black Bears it was David Tomeo (8-11) and for the Rebels it was Noah West (4-3). West recorded the Rebels first shutout of the season by a final of 4-0 against this Black Bears team back on November 24th. With that in mind the Rebels came out firing on all cylinders as Nate Clark wristed one from the point right past Tomeo, giving him his first NAHL goal. With just five seconds left in regulation it seemed that the Rebels would go into the locker room with a 1-0 lead until, Colin Schmidt made a filthy dangle around a Black Bear and scored. Giving his team a 2-0 lead after the first. In the middle frame the Rebels were on the power play and Jim Glynn’s shot missed the net but picking it up on the far side was Nick Stuckless who scored putting the Rebels up by three. With Glynn getting the assist he set a new franchise record for a point streak at 12-straight games (4G,11A). The Rebels had another power-play goal to start the third period after Caleb Price’s shot deflected off the glove of Jake Felker now making it a 4-0 deficit for the Black Bears. Maryland threw everything they could at West, but he was a brick wall from start to finish stopping all 23 shots and giving him another shutout this season.
Rebels now tied their longest-win streak at four games and a lot of players got to take home some early presents right before the holiday. As for the Black Bears, they have not beat the Rebels in regulation this season and are 0-4 when coming to Jamestown. To start 2019 the Rebels will face the Knights four-straight times. The first set of games will be played at the Revolution Ice Centre and then the very next weekend the teams will battle at the Northwest Arena. The Rebels are currently getting the better of the fifth place Knights this season, having not lost to them yet (6-0). Jamestown started off this 2018-2019 season struggling but quickly found their groove as the season progressed. They currently sit in 2nd place in the East with an overall record of 19-9-2-1 (41PTS). They are five points ahead of 3rd place New Jersey but sit 13 points behind 1st place Johnstown. The only New Year’s resolution the Rebels are making is to keep winning. They have the chance to go on their longest-winning streak of the season on January 4th if they beat Wilkes-Barre. The second-half of the season will surely be one you will not want to miss as this Rebels team is poised to make a run at the top spot in the East to try to capture their fourth-straight East Division title.
