Sunday Wrap-Up: Rhinos Pick Up First Win
by Drew Langevin
Louisiana 6 @ Atlanta 1 - Fresh off a 5-0 victory on Friday, the red-hot Drillers would look to continue their dominance. Brody Neish would break the ice on the powerplay, a theme that would be common for Louisiana in this one. Nick Marcella would tie this one up late in the first, on the Capitals sixth shot of the period. The Capitals could not stay out of the box, which is what led to Brendan Johnson scoring another powerplay goal early in the second. Neish would get his second of the game minutes later and then assist on Jake Bergstrom’s power-play goal. Neish would complete the hattrick in the third, with Bergstrom grabbing the fourth power-play goal later in the third. Sebastian Thome would have a calm night making 13 saves, while Robert Pogosian would stand on his head, making an unreal 50 saves on Sunday.
El Paso 4 @ Texas 0 - El Paso would look to split the weekend after a shutout loss to the Road Runners the day before. Donovan Bradford would open the scoring on the powerplay, giving the Rhinos the lead after the first. Jake Bamback doubled the lead in the second, which would then lead to the Road Runners getting into penalty trouble. In the third, Bradford would score his second power-play goal of the game. The rest of the third would essentially be a Rhino powerplay and Andre Valenzuela would score a powerplay goal to beat the clock and give El Paso the 4-0 win. Dylan Newton would pick up the shutout with 37 saves, with Jimmy Packee making 42 saves in the loss for Texas.
Northeast 3 @ Long Beach 2 - Long Beach would look to finish the weekend on a better note after a frustrating 1-0 loss on Saturday. Liam Schaentzler would give the Generals the lead early, but soon enough they would be in penalty trouble. It wasn’t until the second period that the Sharks would finally pot a goal on the powerplay, as Michal Stojka would find the twine. Long Beach would struggle on the man advantage in this one, as the Sharks would go 1/10 on the powerplay. Alec Dahlvang would however give the Sharks the lead as the second period would come to a finish. Dylan Rakes would tie this one in the third and Ryan Solari would grab the game-winning goal late in the third. Kameron Ragon would have 37 saves in the loss, while Jascha Grossenbacher grabbed 30 saves in the victory,
Alexandria 3 @ Rochester 4 - Rochester would be entering this game looking to split their weekend, while Alexandria would be entering Sunday’s game off their shutout victory over Minnesota. Ashton Collings would score late in the first, but Noah Joyce would score an equalizer soon after on the powerplay. Andrew Lahaie would give Rochester the lead after twenty minutes after he potted one in the final minute. Kaden Roness would score an unassisted goal for Alexandria to level this game at two. Noah Gillette scored to take the lead for Rochester, but Jack Carter had other plans, as this game would once again be tied. Andrew Bastian would have the last lead change, as his goal would be the game-winning goal. His goaltender, Andrew Dubin, would make 35 saves while on the other side, Kyle Abrahamson would make 28 saves in the loss.