Zak Brice stopped all 21 shots he faced and Ryan Novo scored a pair of goals to help lead the visiting Titans to a 3 – 0 over the Northeast Generals in game one of this two-game series.
The win now separates the second place Titans by six points over the fourth place Generals in the East Division standings.
With 6:03 remaining in the first period, Northeast’s Andrew DellaDonna was called for checking-from-behind to give the Titans the man advantage. Forty-three seconds later Novo scored his first goal of the game and eventual game winner.
Levente Keresztes started the play at the near side half wall inside the Generals zone and made a cross-ice pass to Brendan Dumas at the top of the far side faceoff circle. Dumas immediately sent a bounce pass to Eric Charpentier and the Dartmouth commit took a clapper from the point that was redirected by Novo in the slot and past Northeast’s goaltender Toby Hopp to make it a 1 – 0 game.
The Titans doubled their lead at 9:28 of the second period. With a scrum along the far side half wall inside the Generals zone, the loose puck came out to Tyler Sanborn at the point and the defenseman took wrist shot that beat Hopp long side for Sanborn’s seventh goal of the season.
Novo scored and empty net goal with 2:22 left in the game to close out the scoring and make it a 3 – 0 game. It was Novo’s eighth goal of the season.
It was Brice’s third shutout of the season. He is only the second Titans netminder to record three shutouts in the same season (Andrew Takacs did it last season). It also was the Titans first road shutout since February 19, 2022, when Takacs stopped 25 shots to defeat Maryland by the same score (3-0) in Piney Orchard Arena. The most shutouts in a season by the Titans was set in their inaugural year of 2015-16 when they recorded six. This is the third time that the Red Buckets have recorded three shutouts in a season (2016-17, 2021-22 being the others).
Hopp stopped 33 of 35 shots in defeat. Click here for the complete box score.
The teams will meet again tonight at 7:00PM at the New England Sports Village.