Odenton, Maryland: The Maryland Black Bears entered Saturday night’s contest having dropped three consecutive home games, including Friday night’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks. This time around, it was the Black Bears getting the extra point in the extra session, winning in a shootout by the score of 2-1.
Danbury got the scoring started on a five-on-three power play opportunity that saw forward Jacob Roberson redirect a puck in the high slot to make it 1-0. The scoring went silent for a while as the two teams had a tough, gritty battle that saw a total of 48 penalty minutes be put up with 26 coming from Maryland and 22 coming from Danbury. The 1-0 score would hold until 1:14 left in the third period when Maryland lifted goaltender Owen Lepak for the extra attacker, and forward Adam Schankula took advantage. Schankula won a board battle on the far side of the ice near the faceoff circle, and let a slap shot go that beat Jr. Hat Tricks goaltender Miles Roberts top left corner to make it 1-1. Extra time was needed to decide this game.
After a scoreless overtime, the game shifted to a shootout. The first three rounds yielded no goals and sudden death rounds in the shootout were needed. Danbury got the edge with the first shooter in round four, forward Josh Erickson, using a deke to beat Lepak for a goal on the near side to give the Jr. Hat Tricks the edge. But the Black Bears responded with a goal from Jesse Horacek, who beat Roberts five-hole on a forehand-backhand move to keep the shootout alive. After Lepak turned aside a shot from Danbury defenseman Cam Charron in round five, it was Maryland forward Riley Ruh using a fake to the left side to sneak a shot off the pad of Roberts and in to secure a 2-1 shootout win for the Black Bears.
Maryland hits the road on Friday, December 1st for a two game series in Philadelphia against the Philadelphia Rebels. The Black Bears return home on Friday, December 8th, for the final home series of 2023 against the Rebels again. All games can be streamed on NAHLTV.