On Saturday night, the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Knights Elite team came away with a 7-1 win over the Florida Jr. Blades at Chilled Ponds Ice Sports Complex. For most of the game, the Knights controlled the game, making it difficult for the Jr. Blades to get any life to get themselves back in the game.
In what looked to be an easy night between the pipes, Antoni Gauvin comes away with a 19-save win. On the other end, the Knights made life difficult for Zsigmond Megyeri as he stopped 29 of 35 shots he faced in the loss. After the sixth goal, he was replaced by Nikoli Dunne, who stopped 4-of-5 to end the game. Ilya Baldin (1g-2a) and Artem Zharikov (3a) had outstanding games for the Knights.
First Period
The Knights came out with some fire under them as they would come out putting a ton of shots on net early. At 1:50 of the first, the Knights took a 1-0 lead as a beautiful passing play between Zharikov and Timofei Korber ended in the back of the net with Korber tallying to goal for his fourth of the season. Baldin collected the secondary assist on the goal. Just 11 seconds later, the Knights tallied another goal as yet another beautiful passing play ended in the back of the net. This time, it was Baldin getting the goal for his second point of the night as Zharikov notched his second assist of the game. That was Baldin’s third goal of the season.
At 3:39, the Jr. Blades had their opportunity to stop the bleeding on the powerplay as Yaroslav Chelbayevsky was sent to the box for interference. On the ensuing powerplay, a bit of inconsistency from the Jr. Blades allowed easy clearances for the Knights. After the kill, the Knights went right back to work, hemming the Jr. Blades in their own zone for a good two minutes. Frustration from Megyeri towards his team could be seen and heard as he yelled at them to gain possession of the puck and clear the zone.
The Knights continued their dominating play through the first 10 minutes of the period, making the lives of the Jr. Blades’ player extremely difficult. Trying to find any way to gain momentum, the Jr. Blades picked the physical game up, laying the body on anyone in their path. Trying to lay the body, running around cost them as they went on to the penalty. Payne Vanderheid was sent to the box for tripping, giving an already good-looking Knights team their first powerplay of the game. Much like their play at 5-on-5, the Knights made the lives of the Jr. Blades’ players miserable. It took nearly a minute for them to gain possession of the puck for the first clearance on the kill, however, the Knights quickly turned back the other way and got right back to work. The Jr. Blades did a good enough job to kill off the penalty, and bring themselves back to 5-on-5.
At 13:10, the Knights found the back of the net as a mishandle from Megyeri trying to cover the puck cost him and his team a goal as it bounced off the paddle of his stick and into the middle of the ice for Kirill Serebryakov to bang home the rebound. Chelbayevsky and Francis Gauvin picked up the assists. Frustration really began to kick in for the Jr. Blades as a powerplay opportunity for them turned into them going down 4-on-3.
With the second of the Jr. Blades penalties coming with less than two minutes left in the first, the Knights had 13 seconds of powerplay time to carry over to the second period. Up 3-0 to end the first, the Knights outshot the Jr. Blades heavily by a 22-6 total. Both teams were unable to capitalize on their powerplay chances.
Second Period
The Jr. Blades found life early in the second period as a shot by Caden Pignotti was stopped by A. Gauvin, but a juicy rebound was left right in the slot for Jaron Prokopetz to bury into the back of the net. Cooper Christensen picked up the secondary assist. Just 41 seconds later, at 1:25, the Knights got it right back to go up 4-1 as they skated circles around the Jr. Blades in their own zone. A pass from Zharikov from behind the net found Korober all alone in front of the net, and he made no mistake to riffle a shot right by the glove hand of Megyeri.
Things really got heated in the second as within the first six minutes of play, two off-setting minors were called as scrums occurred after nearly every whistle. With 5:09 to go in the middle frame, the Jr. Blades would spend the rest of that time on the penalty kill as Vincent Faggioli-Delong was assessed a five-minute major for checking from behind on a very dangerous hit along the left-wing boards in the Knights’ end. Uncharacteristiclike from the first half of the game, the Knights were struggling tremendously to put two passes together, making it easy for the Jr. Blades to kill off a drastic penalty.
The second period came to an end with the Knights up 4-1. Despite the five-minute powerplay, the Knights were outshot in the period by a 9-6 margin, but still led the shot total heavily for the game by a 28-15 margin.
Third Period
A beautiful breakout play from the Knights led to a 2-on-1 situation back the other way. Looking pass to fool the defenseman, Serebryakov shot the puck low and hard to easily beat Megyeri five-hole, who would want that back. To go up 5-1 at 1:47 of the third period, Jake Kanzinger and Wyatt Stasik picked up the assists. At 5:45, the Jr. Blades went back on the penalty kill as Greyson Betzold was called for tripping. On the ensuing powerplay, the Knights made no mistake to push their lead further, making it 6-1, as another soft five-hole shot from Stasik went through Megyeri at 6:36. A. Zharikov and Baldin picked up the assists. That, essentially, ended Megyeri’s night as Dunne came on in relief.
Just when you thought the goals were done, the Knights tacked on their seventh goal of the game, bringing the score to 7-1 at 14:55 as a floating shot from the right-wing wall by Serebryakov beat Dunne on the blocker side, ringing off the post and in. Stasik tallied his third point of the night with the assist.
Time wound down on the game, and the Knights walked away with a seemingly easy 7-1 win over the Jr. Blades. The Knights got back to their dominating ways in the third period, having a 12-5 margin on shots for the period.
