September 9, 2022 (Middletown, NJ) – After starting the season with a 6-4 win over the Danbury Hattricks last week the Northeast Generals headed south to New Jersey for a game against division rival the New Jersey Titans. 5 different Generals recorded multi-point nights while Ian Kangas earned a shutout in the commanding 6-0 win.
With the Win Northeast improves to 2-0 in the early stage of the season while the New Jersey opens their regular season schedule 0-1. The two teams will play the second leg of the two game set tomorrow night at 6:30 pm.
The scoring opened 7:28 into the contest while the Generals were on the powerplay. Reed McCarthy held the puck on the left side of the zone and passed it up to Nolan Zotter in the middle of the point. Zotter fired the puck on net where Michael Locke was parked in front to redirect it into the back of the net for an early 1-0 lead.
The second period brought two more goals for the Generals first at 2:13, then at 4:45. A bad shot attempt from a Titans defenseman gave Dalton Wille and the Generals an easy breakout of their own end. Wille gained the offensive zone and took a shot from the top of the left hand circle into the top right corner of the net to make it 2-0. Mason Frary followed up while on the penalty kill just 2:32 later. Frary caused a turnover deep in the New Jersey zone while on the forecheck and found Sean Gorman in the right side circle. Gorman took a shot on net that was stopped, but Frary had made his way to the far side just in time to meet the rebound and bang it home for a 3-0 Gens lead.
With one goal in the first, and two goals in the second its easy to guess that the Generals scored three goals in the third period. The first one came just 9 seconds into the frame. While even strength at 4-on-4 the Generals won the opening faceoff and chipped the puck immediately into the Titans zone. Braeden Kennedy cut off the break out pass on the right side of the zone and picked the near side corner of the net for his team leading 3rd goal of the season.
Frary added his second goal of the game at the 13:18 mark after walking out of the left side circle, around a defenseman, and flipping the puck into the top corner of the net. Gabe Vijuk added one last goal in the last two minutes at the 18:21 mark after intercepting a pass in the neutral zone and walking in alone into the offensive zone. Vijuk entered on the left side of the zone and shot the puck to the top right of the net over the glove of New Jersey’s goalie giving the Generals the final score of 6-0.
Kangas (2-0) stopped all 23 shots fired his way while Jake Agoglia (0-1) for New Jersey stopped 33 of 39 in the losing effort.
The two teams will take to the ice at the Middletown Ice Arena in Middletown, NJ tomorrow Saturday September 10th at 6:30 pm.
Follow along on Hockey TV for live coverage of the game, and follow the Generals on social media @negenerals for live game updates and more!