The Tahoe Knight Monsters kicked off their inaugural season on Thursday Evening vs Jacksonville Icemen in front of a sold-out crowd at the Tahoe Blue Event Center. It wouldn’t take the Knight Monsters long to get their fans going as Artur Cholach would fire a shot from the point at the 6:34 mark that would beat Matt Vernon and give the Knight Monsters their first goal in franchise history. Special teams played a big part in Thursday’s game as Tahoe had a golden chance to grow their lead as they would have a five on three for 1:50 but couldn’t convert, swinging the momentum in Jacksonville’s favor as it would be a powerplay goal by Logan Cockerill at 16:59 that would tie the game up at one and that would be the score after the opening 20 minutes of play. The 25-year-old forward would score Jacksonville’s first three goals of the 2024-25 season.
In the second period, it would be Brendan Harris who would take a shot from the right circle that would beat Jesper Vikman at the 8:00 mark to give the Icemen a one-goal lead, and just 2:31 later; it would be Zach Jordan who took advantage of another Icemen PP to give them a two-goal lead and despite being outshot 26-12 after two periods they headed into the third with a two-goal lead. Matt Vernon, who finished second in voting for ECHL Goalie of the Year in his rookie year, was doing everything he could to keep Jacksonville in the game.
Heading into the third period, the Knight Monsters were looking to make a comeback and join the Bloomington Bison in picking up their first ECHL win. Tahoe would cut the lead down to one as Brennan Kapcheck would find the back of the net to make it a one-goal game. After getting his first goal as Knight Monster, Kapcheck would feed Simon Pinard on a break-away less than four minutes later, who found the back of the net with 2:29 left in the third, and we would head to overtime in Stateline. Brendan Harris would come down the wing with 1:20 remaining in OT but would be stopped by Vikman but then he would kick the puck into his own net as the Knight Monsters would lose in heartbreaking fashion by a score of 4-3 on opening night as Vernon made 36 saves for his first win of the 2024-25 campaign
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