The Maine Nordiques just couldn’t find their groove Saturday night.

The Jamestown Rebels, behind Liam Hansson’s two goals, defeated the Nordiques for the second straight night, 5-2, at the Northwest Arena in Jamestown, New York.

“We were a little short-handed tonight (on the bench), and we weren’t able to get the job done,” Maine Nordiques coach Nolan Howe said. “Going home with one point is certainly disappointing, but we get back to work Monday and try to get better.”

The Nordiques started slow, falling behind 2-0 seven minutes into the game. Hansson put the Rebels up 1-0, and Carter Eha scored the second goal. The goals were the first of the season for each player.

The Rebels dominated the period, outshooting the Nordiques 17-8. For the game, Jamestown out shot Maine 51-34

Stefan Owens cut the deficit in half for the Nordiques with just under two minutes remaining in the opening period.

Valerii Rykov continued to be a thorn in the Nordiques side as the former L/A Nordique factored in both goals for the Rebels in the second period. He set up Marshall Walker’s first goal of the season nine minutes into the period.

Rykov then potted his fifth goal of the season with about six minutes remaining in the middle period to extend the lead to 4-1.

“Rykov, we can’t slow him down, but they clogged up the neutral zone and they played a heavy game and we didn’t quite have our legs — we didn’t play the right way,” Howe said. “Credit to them, they played a good game, they outshot us, they out-hit us, and they executed better on their special teams. At the end of the day, when you don’t do those things, you don’t win the hockey games.”

Just like the first period, the Nordiques struck late in the second as Luke Antonacci notched his first career goal with 20 seconds remaining.

Antonacci, a defenseman, was called up this weekend from the Maine Nordiques Development Program 18U team.

“He’s an offensively gifted defenseman, he plays a great game,” Howe said. “He has been with me for a long time, and we look forward for him to get more games with us this year and certainly in the future, he’s a big part of it.”

Hansson gave the Rebels a 5-2 lead on the power play with eight-plus minutes remaining in the game.

The Nordiques responded with a power play goal of their own as Kevin Pitts found the back of the net with under six minutes to play.

Maine was 1-for-7 on the man advantage while the Rebels were 1-for-4.

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