The Maryland Black Bears clinched the regular season East Division title heading into its final series of the season against the Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks. Maryland elected to rest some of its usual starters to give fans a glimpse of the future, with tendered players Sebastian Brockman and Brody Simko making their Black Bears debuts. It was a hard-fought battle from both sides but in the end, it was Danbury taking the win with a 3-2 shootout victory.

The Black Bears started the scoring with a rebound goal from forward Kareem El-Bashir, who chipped the puck over the pad of Jr. Hat Tricks’ goalie Thomas Kiesewtter to make it 1-0. Maryland added to its lead in the second period with a goal from forward Gabriel Westling, who went forehand to backhand alone in the slot and roofed the puck to the top right corner for the 2-0 lead.

Danbury responded with a two-goal third period to tie the game at 2-2. Forward Chase Sandhu started the scoring by chipping a rebound past Black Bears’ goalie William Hakansson to make it 2-1. Forward Logan Nickerson tied it on the powerplay to make it 2-2 after a rebound went off of a Maryland defender and into the back of the net. The game went to a shootout where goals from Danbury forwards Quinn Kennedy and Logan Furstenau lifted the Jr. Hat Tricks to a 3-2 win.

Maryland and Danbury rematch for the final regular season game for both teams on Saturday, April 15th, with puck drop scheduled for 6:30 pm ET at Piney Orchard Ice Arena. All games can be streamed on HockeyTV.