LONG BEACH, N.Y. — With only 14 players available, the L/A Nordiques came away with a 6-2 victory over the Long Beach Sharks on Saturday afternoon.
Joe Bisson was sick, Sam Frechette had to stay home for school and Kyle Secor was suspended due to a game misconduct in Friday’s game. Jared Katz, meanwhile, was at a tryout with the Jamestown Rebels of the NAHL.
“Considering we were short(-handed), I think the guys worked hard to get our 30th win of the season,” Robichaud said of the weekend sweep of the Sharks. “I think we are the first junior hockey team at any level, at the Tier I, Tier II or Tier III level to get 30 wins, so that was exciting.”
L/A’s 30th win came in the first game of the weekend series with Long Beach, a 8-3 win Friday. After Saturday’s win, the Nordiques are 31-3-0.
The team had six different goal scorers, highlighted by Zack Mullen with a goal and two assists and Connor Kennedy and Colby Audette with a goal and an assist each. Also scoring were, Hans Watson, Matthew McDermitt and newcomer Valeri Rykov.
Rykov, who is from Moscow, Russia, played his first team with the Nordiques on Friday. He spent last season with the Palm Beach of the USPHL, where he had seven goals and eight assists in 25 games with the organization’s Premier team. With its Elite team he had a goal and two assists in six games.
“Good size, good skill, he’s Russian, he had two goals and two assists yesterday,” Robichaud said. “I know he had at least a goal today, so he’s finding himself on the stat sheet in his first two games. He’s a top-six (player), he’s a 2000 (birth year) player that has the potential to be a Tier II player next season.”
Rykov takes Mike Keller’s spot on the roster. Keller is most likely done for the season after he recently undergoing hip surgery.
Mullen gave the Nordiques a 1-0 lead at the 4:41 mark of the first period as JP Chauvin notched his 48th assist of the season.
The Sharks took a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission. Ryan Gridley tied the game at the 8:32 mark, and Cade Lambdin scored the go-ahead goal with 54 seconds remaining in the period.
McDermitt tied the contest up at the 2:37 mark of the middle frame with his first goal of the year, and Kennedy picked up the eventual game-winner just before the five-minute mark. Rykov had the third goal of the period.
Watson and Audette scored in the third period.
Nordiques’ goalie Hunter Raye made 27 saves for the victory, while Ryan Cortez made 46 saves.
The teams face each other next Saturday and Sunday at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
Twin City Thunder 7, Steele County 0
MARLBOROUGH, Mass. — The Twin City Thunder opened their slate of games at the USPHL Winter Showcase with a 7-0 victory over the Steele County Blades.
Derric Trudeau had a pair of goals for the Thunder, while Jacob Dubay, Cooper Davis, David Martinek, Cody Doyon and Zach Simpson had a goal apiece.
“Cody Doyon got on the board with a good goal, Zach Simpson, Jacob Dubay and Cooper Davis had a real nice goal,” Thunder head coach Doug Friedman said. “Derric Trudeau did have two goals today. He hit a bit of a milestone — apparently the first goal he scored was his 100th career junior point. The guys were pretty excited about that.”
Jaxon Friedman stopped all 16 shots he faced as the Thunder outshot the Blades 36-16 in the contest.
“It was a good start. To be expected with our first game in quite a while, there was a lot of mistakes,” Doug Friedman said. “But when we did make mistakes, Jaxon came up big for us. What was nice today was getting seven goals on the board. I think that was a highest offensive output of the season.”
The Thunder have two games Sunday, first one bright and early against the Niagara Falls Thunder at 8:50 a.m., and then against the Potomac Patriots at 3:10 p.m.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
