3 Takeaways From Wednesday Night Action In The ECHL

There are so many things to love about hockey. On any given night, the unexpected can occur.

There were plenty of surprises Wednesday night in the ECHL, including two hat tricks and an overtime thriller. Here are three takeaways from the action.

Knight Monsters 4, Oilers 0

Rumor has it that lurking beneath the depths of Lake Tahoe is a mysterious creature named Tessie, who rules the region with a fierce, towering presence.

The creature and the folklore surrounding it is shrouded in mystery. But there’s nothing mysterious about the team from whom it is named. The Tahoe Knight Monsters have made one thing abundantly clear through the first seven games of the club’s inaugural season: they are a force to be reckoned with.

The Tulsa Oilers were the latest recipient of that message Wednesday night. The Knight Monsters not only came away with a dominant 4-0 win in Stateline, but notched the first hat trick in the franchise’s short history.

It wasn’t your ordinary hatty, either. Simon Pinard scored his first goal 2:37 into the game, potted another 10 minutes later and tallied his third four minutes after that for a natural hat trick.

That’s no easy feat at any level, but Pinard certainly made it look easy on this night. His first goal came on a breakaway after duking several Tulsa defenders. The second was on a power play following a beautiful cross-ice pass from Sloan Stanick. The third came from the low slot off a redirection from Bear Hughes.

Boom. Just like that, Pinard and his club made history, again.

Pinard still wasn’t done. He closed out the scoring in the third period to account for all four Tahoe goals.

The Knight Monsters’ defense certainly deserves credit for the victory as well. They constantly clogged up the neutral zone, were tough on the boards and hounded the Oilers with pressure in the offensive zone.

Tahoe even withstood a two-minute 5-on-3 penalty-kill against a team that ranked second in the ECHL on the power-play on the road (44.4%), allowing only one shot on goal during that sequence.

Knight Monsters goaltender Jordan Papirny, who had just arrived from Henderson the previous night, had a stellar debut, stopping all 36 shots he faced to preserve another piece of history: the team’s first-ever shutout.

It’s a long season, and plenty of challenges lay ahead. But wherever she is, Tahoe Tessie had to be watching proudly from her underwater kingdom.

Rush 5, Steelheads 2

Pinard wasn’t the only one who got a hat trick Wednesday night. Brett Davis wanted a piece of the action as well, getting his first professional hatty to lead the Rapid City Rush to victory in Idaho.

Davis, who missed the previous two games for family reasons, started the scoring with a shorthanded goal off a 2-on-0 rush for a 1-0 lead in the first period.

Ryan Wagner added a power-play goal in the second on a shot from the top of the left circle for a 2-0 Rapid City lead.

Just over a minute later, Davis struck again, firing a wrister to the left side of the net off a 2-on-1.

The Steelheads rallied with two goals in the third to cut the deficit to 3-2, but Chaz Smedsrud spoiled any hopes of a comeback with a shot off a Wagner centering pass for a 4-2 lead halfway through the third period. Then, Davis got his hat trick on an empty-netter to seal Rapid City’s second consecutive win.

Rush goalie Matt Radomsky was tested all night by the Steelheads, but stopped 47 of 49 shots. That tied for the second-most saves he’s made in his pro career.

Mariners 3, Royals 2 (Overtime)

As if two hatties weren’t enough, fans in Portland, Maine were treated to a thrilling overtime win by the Mariners, who came back late to snatch victory away from the Reading Royals at the Cross Insurance Arena.

Trailing 2-1 in the final seconds of regulation, Brooklyn Kalmikov tied the game by deflecting a Jimmy Lambert shot from the blueline with 7.4 seconds left in regulation.

Lambert would end the game quickly just 28 seconds into the extra frame after taking a feed from his goalie, Ryan Bischel, going coast-to-coast for a wrister stick-side.

The game remained scoreless until the third period, thanks to superb goaltending by Bischel and Royals netminder Keith Petruzzelli. Reading’s Todd Skirving finally broke the scoring drought off a Tyler Gratton shot at 1:08 of the third period.

The Mariners answered 37 seconds later on a Patrick Guay goal, his team-leading fourth of the season. Gianfranco Cassaro put the Royals back in front 2-1 on a power-play goal at 9:05 before Maine mounted its last-minute comeback.