The Maryland Black Bears have started off 2024 red hot, winning five of their first six games of the new year. They hoped to continue that success as they hosted their East Division foe the New Jersey Titans. Despite falling behind 2-0 early in the game, the Black Bears battled back, and thanks to two goals by forward Luke Janus they completed their comeback winning 4-2.

The Titans started off the game with two goals in the seven minutes of the first period. The first of which came just 1:44 in when forward Kristofers Krumins received the puck on the far circle after a Maryland turnover and shot it over the blocker of Black Bears’ goalie Colin Ronan for a 1-0 lead. New Jersey was able to double that lead on the powerplay with a wrist shot goal from forward Dominik Barteko, who got the puck in the near circle and shot it to the top right corner for a 2-0 lead. Maryland was able to get on the board before the first period was over when forward Jesse Horacek forced a turnover as the Titans were trying to exit the zone. From there, he was able to get the puck to forward Dimitry Kebreau who was stopped on his first shot but buried the rebound past New Jersey goaltender Dylan Krick to cut the deficit to 2-1. In the dying seconds of the period, Colin Ronan made a huge save on Titans’ forward Johnny McMahon to preserve the 2-1 score.

Black Bears’ forward Samuel Stitz tied the game quickly in the second period, pouncing on a neutral zone turnover by New Jersey, racing into the offensive zone on the near side, and fired a wrist shot to the lower left portion of the net to tie the game 2-2. Scoring was silent until just over five minutes to go in the game, where Luke Janus got his first of two goals on the powerplay. Maryland forward David Utkin, who was making his Black Bears debut, had the puck on the far circle and moved it to the far corner to forward Samuel Stitz. Stitz tossed the puck to the slot to Janus who buried it past Krick for a 3-2 lead. Janus concluded the scoring with a wrap-around empty net goal to make the final score 4-2. Ronan made 28 saves in the winning effort. 

The Black Bears and Titans rematch Saturday night at Piney Orchard Ice Arena with puck drop scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET. All games can be streamed on NAHLTV.