Continuing a trend that now stretches back five weeks, the New Jersey Titans earned a weekend split against the Maine Nordiques last weekend at the Middletown Sports Complex. Falling 8-3 on Friday, New Jersey was able to compete a comeback on Saturday before winning in overtime 4-3.
Friday night marked the first time this season the Titans hosted the division’s first place team, and the Nordiques struck quickly and often, scoring four times in a five minute span to take an insurmountable lead. Matt Hanscom scored his first as a Titan on the power play with 1:11 remaining in the first, but a Nordiques response 23 second later snuffed out hopes of a comeback. Maine made it 6-1 to early in the second period, before Archer Brown and Logan Renkowski found the back of the net to cut the deficit in half. However, Maine found a pair of goals in the final two minutes to ensure the game was out of reach. A physical game, the contest saw 167 penalty minutes and multiple ejections.
Looking to recover on Saturday night, New Jersey jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Blake Jones tallied his first in the league on the power play. Optimism faded when the Nordiques scored three unanswered goals in the second period while outshooting the Titans 19-9 in the frame. Logan Renkowski scored a few minutes into the third period to pull within one, but New Jersey needed to wait for their captain Ryan Novo to deflect a Renkowski shot with 12.3 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime for the second time between the teams. This time, it was Renkowski sprinting on a breakaway after two vital blocks by Kyle Kim that gave the Titans the win in come from behind fashion 4-3.
New Jersey now sits in a tie for 4th with Johnstown, holding a record of 12-11-2. Following Thanksgiving, the Titans will head up to Canton, Massachusetts, to face the Northeast Generals this weekend for a two game set, with 7:00pm starts on Friday and Saturday nights. With a special “Free Weekend” promotion on NAHLtv, all registered users can view this weekend’s games at no cost. Head to NAHLtv.com for more information and how to register, and select the “Away” feed to watch and listen as Zak McGinniss brings you all of the action.