The Potomac Patriots went into Chilled Ponds Ice Sports Complex Sunday afternoon to take the weekend sweep over the Hampton Roads Whalers in USPHL Premier action with a 5-4 victory, despite the Whalers winning the special teams all game long. The Whalers were 2-for-6 on the man advantage while keeping the Patriots off the scoresheet throughout their six powerplay opportunities. The Patriots dominated all over the ice a majority of the game, but the Whalers made a valiant effort to make things interesting in the third period, coming back from a 5-2 deficit in the final five minutes. Potomac held a 37-35 shot advantage throughout the game.
Robbie Rajnys had a spectacular game for the Whalers as he had a hand in every Whalers’ goal with three goals and an assist. Oskar Jungrave had himself an afternoon for the Patriots. The 20-year-old tallied one goal and two assists, helping lead the Patriots to another 2 points in the standings.
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Despite letting in a weak goal from below the goal line, Whalers’ goaltender, Alexander Croy, made 32 saves in the loss. On the winning side of things, Henry Hunt had a 31-save win performance, including many great stops to help maintain his team’s leads.
Both teams will meet again on Sept. 21 (7:45 p.m.) and 22 (1:15 p.m.) when the Whalers take the trip to Woodbridge, VA to face their I95 rivals for a second-straight weekend. It will be a big weekend for the Whalers to build momentum and carry it over as they host the 2024 USPHL Southeast Showcase Sept. 27 to Sept. 30.
First Period
Coming off a high, the Patriots started the first minute and a half hot as they put up two early shots. Croy had to come up big for the Whalers to keep the Patriots off the board. At the two-minute mark, Croy came up with another big save, this time on a breakaway chance. The Whalers defense fell asleep, not noticing a stretching Nikolay Kharinov, who collected a pass and split the D for a breakaway. Croy came up with a big left-pad save to again, keep the game scoreless. 50 seconds later, the Whalers had their first big opportunity as Curren Stukey and Noel Wargloo were down 2-on-1 with the Potomac defender. Stukey found Wargloo in the middle of the ice to feed him a sauce-pass that landed right on Wargloo’s tape. Wargloo quickly went to his backhand, but Hunt’s lateral movement was stunning as he was able to keep the puck out of the net thanks to his strong legs.
At 5:13 of the first period, hometown product, Rajnys, was all alone with a big chance on the left-wing circle. Seeing a Patriots defender quickly closing in, he released a shot that almost fooled Hunt, but was still able to get enough on it to keep the puck out. The Patriots took the first penalty at 6:25 as Kharinov was sent to the box for charging. Up a man, the Whalers needed to take advantage, but Potomac capitalized at 7:31 on a mistake by the Whalers Sam Pfeiffer, as he could not keep the puck in the zone. Conner Nieto beat Pfeiffer to the puck, skating it into the zone, and dishing a pass to Jungarve. Jungarve tipped the puck over Croy, and into the back of the net for his first goal of the season.
23 seconds later, the Whalers responded as Rajnys tallied his first goal of the season off a beautiful bar-down goal. Pfeiffer and Wyatt Teubert recorded the assists. Less than a minute later, Potomac responded to regain the lead on another 2-on-1 chance at 8:42. Illya Biesiedin placed a perfect pass on the tape of Matvei Naumov’s stick, who made no mistake of roofing it over the right shoulder of Croy and right under the crossbar. Kharinov recorded the secondary assist.
Needing a goal bad to kill the momentum of Potomac, the Whalers swarm the net with shots as the tallied three, but Hunt was big keeping them all out of the net.
At 13:10, Croy looked to find his footing in net as he made not one, but two huge saves, with the second being the best. Off a rebound kicked out near the corner, Kharinov was waiting along the side of the net for an opportunity, and he got it. A stretching Croy was able to deny him of his second point of the afternoon with a huge left-pad save, keeping the score at 2-1.
Behind the play, at 15:05, Rajyns was called for roughing, giving an already motivated Patriots team their first powerplay. Off the faceoff, the Whalers were able to get a clear, getting the Patriots scrambling to get set up. They were able to get set up, however, they could not get anything to go. Just seconds after their first penalty expired, the Whalers went back on the penalty kill as Max Roos was called for interference at 17:21. The Patriots were able to gain possession of the puck and set up their powerplay. After 20 seconds in the zone, a failed pass attempt allowed the Whalers to clear their zone, killing off more time. Potomac quickly brought the puck back in and attempted their low-to-high powerplay set up, but Thor Martin read it perfectly, intercepting the puck and getting a clear. The Whalers did a fantastic job at not giving the Patriots anything to work with, and were able to kill of their second-straight penalty kill.
Nikita Zozulia for the Whalers and Nieto for the Patriots were both given five minute majors and a game disqualification at the end of the first for fighting, making their afternoons done.
After what seemed to be a shaky start, Croy was fantastic through the remaining of the period. Hunt, on the other end, was tested often, but did a solid job. The Patriots held a 15-14 shot advantage for the period, and went 0-for-2 on the powerplay. The Whalers capitalized on their only chance on the powerplay of the period.
Second Period
A little back-and-forth to begin the period lead to the Whalers getting the first good chance at 2:51 as a weird bounce off the boards gave Bryson Ehn a lane to the net to get a shot off, but Hunt was there to stop the shot, and the follow-up shot Ehn was able to get. At 3:40, Jungarve forced the Whalers’ D to panic and forced a turnover. He was able to find Naumov behind both the Whalers’ defenseman, but Croy came up big on the breakaway. Potomac regained possession, and had all five Whalers’ players scrambling.
At 3:59, Stukey found himself all alone with the goaltender. He smartly riffled a shot from the hashmarks, but missed wide with the shot, wasting a good chance to bring the game to within one. At 4:56, Roos went back to the penalty box for interference, but the Patriots’ powerplay did not last long as Biesiedin was called for hooking. The Whalers capitalized on Potomac’s mistake of ending its own powerplay as at 5:55, the Whalers cut the lead down to one off a goal from Samuel Russo. Rajnys found Russo on the back door and dished a backhand pass over to Russo. He made no mistake with the big chance and slammed the puck into the back of the net. Nojus Jonas Kudzevicius picked up the secondary assist on the goal.
After a tremendous kill of Martin’s holding call, the Whalers could not gain momentum, and the Patriots were able to tack on another goal. Trevor Riggs picked up the goal as he danced through the entire Whalers’ team, went below the goal line, and threw the puck on net that bounced off Croy for a terrible goal against from no angle. That was Riggs’ first junior goal, which was assisted by Alexander Kharinov and N. Kharinov.
Another lapse in the defense allowed for another easy goal as Yovanni Flores buried the third shot attempt to give Potomac a 5-2 lead at 18:47 of the middle frame. A. Kharinov and Bowen Lopez picked up the assists on the goal.
Potomac took a 5-2 lead into the locker room, looking to close things out and sweep the weekend to spoil the Whalers’ home opening weekend. They lead the shot total for the period, 15-9 and 30-23 for the game. Potomac went 0-for-3 on the powerplay, while Hampton Roads went 0-for-4 in the period.
Third Period
To start the period, Rajnys took a cross-checking minor penalty, giving Potomac an early powerplay, just 36 seconds into the final frame. The Patriots quickly controlled the puck off the ensuing faceoff, and worked the puck around the outside as the Whalers did a solid job keeping them from the middle of the ice. After a couple more clearances, the Whalers held on to kill the penalty and go right to work in an attempt to get their game going.
Up until the 14 minute mark of the third, not a lot had gone on. Sergey Kolesov was called for hooking, giving the Whalers their sixth powerplay of the afternoon. On a delayed call to send the Whalers on a 5-on-3 powerplay at 14:56, Rajyns collected his second powerplay goal of the afternoon to make it a 5-3 game. Off a shot from Wargloo, the rebound popped out to the side as Rajyns was patiently waiting to see where the puck was going. Once he found the puck lying off to the side, he banged home the rebound. Heading back to the powerplay from Biesiedin taking a slashing penalty just before the goal was scored, the Whalers looked to make it a one-goal game. Zane Price brought an end to the Whalers’ powerplay as he took an interference call at 15:10, making it 4-on-4.
At 16:54, Rajnys finished off the hat trick to beat Hunt on the blocker side, and cut the lead to 5-4 for the Patriots. Oliver Kiel-Straarup and Martin picked up the assists on the goal. With 1:40 left and needing one goal to tie the game, head coach Colten Teubert pulled his goalie to put his team on a 6-on-5 advantage. The Whalers prevented the Patriots from getting one on the empty net, but could not figure out the tremendous defensive play by the Patriots, who were blocking shots all over the ice to prevent what would have been an incredible comeback by the Whalers.
Hampton Roads held a 12-7 shot advantage. It went 1-for-2 on the powerplay and killed off both Potomac powerplay chances.
