Knight Monsters Teach Kansas City a Lesson in 4-1 Win
November 20, 2024 - ECHL (ECHL)
Tahoe Knight Monsters News Release
STATELINE, NV - For the second straight game to open a series, it was the Jordan Papirny show at the Tahoe Blue Event Center.
Exactly one week after executing a 36-save shutout against Tulsa, Papirny continued his torrid stretch with a 32 save effort in a 4-1 win over the Kansas City Mavericks.
The Knight Monsters rode impeccable penalty killing and clutch scoring off the rush throughout the game, and took down the top team in the Mountain Division in the process.
The first period was a back-and-forth affair with end to end play on both sides. The highlight was Tahoe killing off back-to-back penalties, essentially four straight minutes of power play time, to keep the frame scoreless.
And then in the second, the Knight Monsters began their scoring surge.
Luke Adam notched his second goal of the season on a wrist shot from the far side faceoff dot, and just minutes later it was Nate Kallen who led the rush with a wicked wrister of his own for his second goal of the season.
Kallen's strike was just the third goal scored by a defender at home, and the first since the second game of the season almost a month ago.
The Knight Monsters PK was tested again in the second with another sequence of back-to-back penalties, but they held strong to force a 2-0 lead going into the third.
To open the third period, it was Anthony Collins who scored his first goal of the season off a beautiful feed from Adam Pitters. The goal came just seconds after Collins fumbled a 2-on-0 rush.
Damien Giroux got the Mavericks on the board 10 minutes later on a scramble play in the blue paint, but the Knight Monsters would respond just two minutes later. Artur Cholach ripped in a rebound to make it 4-1, which eventually became the final score.
With the departures of Simon Pinard and Jett Jones, the Knight Monsters needed depth players to step up in key roles. And they got it on Wednesday with an excellent performance from their fourth line, and finally some more scoring from their blueliners.
However, we have seen this movie before for Tahoe, and each time this season it's ended in a game two loss. They got dominated by Idaho in game two a few weeks ago, and Tulsa handled them in game two last week. Let's see if this series is when the Knight Monsters flip that switch.
Kansas City is going to respond on Friday night, and Tahoe is going to have to be ready for it. Puck Drop is scheduled for 7:30 pm at the Tahoe Blue Event Center. Ticket packages for the 2024-25 Tahoe Knight Monsters season are now available. For more information, visit https://knightmonstershockey.com/.
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