The Maryland Black Bears entered its final home series of the regular season in need of some late-season points. They currently hold the fourth seed in the North American Hockey League’s East Division with 68 points. This is the final playoff spot in the East Division’s portion of the Robertson Cup Playoffs. Maryland currently leads the fifth-seeded Northeast Generals by three points with Northeast still having three games to play. Unfortunately for Maryland, they were unable to take a step closer to the postseason, dropping game 59 to the Jamestown Rebels 5-3. With the win, Jamestown clinches its first playoff birth since 2019.

The Black Bears started the scoring with forward Elliott Lareau snapping a shot past Rebels’ goalie Nolan Suggs to make it 1-0 on an odd-man rush. Later in the period, Jamestown forward John Lundy slammed a rebound home on the powerplay to tie the game 1-1. Rebels’ defenseman Josh Burke gave Jamestown a 2-1 lead by letting a wrist shot go past the glove of Maryland goalie Luca Di Pasquo. Rebels’ forward Jak Vaarwerk made it 3-1 on a wrist shot goal on the powerplay. The Black Bears got a goal back from forward Conor Cole to make it 3-2 with under 30 seconds to go in the second period. The score stayed 3-2 Jamestown after two periods.

Maryland tied the game in the third with Elliott Lareau’s second goal of the game to make it 3-3 in the third. However, Rebels’ forward Tyler Stern deflected a shot in the slot into the net to make it 4-3 with 8:46 to go in regulation time. Jamestown sealed the deal with an empty-net goal from forward Kolby Amici to make the final score 5-3.

Maryland and Jamestown rematch Friday, April 15th with puck drop scheduled for noon at Piney Orchard Ice Arena. With a win tomorrow, Maryland would force Northeast to need to go 2-0-1 this weekend to take the team’s playoff spot. All games can be streamed on HockeyTV.