The Maine Nordiques ran into a hot goal scorer Friday night.
Nick Seitz scored twice in the New Jersey Titans’ 5-1 victory over the Nordiques in a North American Hockey League East Division contest at Middletown Ice World Arena in Middletown, New Jersey.
Seitz, who has committed to play at Princeton University, has scored two goals in four straight games. He now has 15 goals this season.
Maine outshot the Titans 47-36 in the game.
The win puts the Titans (20-11-6, 46 points) three points behind the Nordiques (24-13-1, 49 points) for second place in the NAHL East Division.
“Our goal is to keep getting better, and we are aware of that, they have been on a hot streak,” Maine coach Nolan Howe said. “I think their new goalie (Christian Stoever) is 8-0-1 now. So we need to create more traffic and find a way tomorrow to get more traffic and generate some more offense.”
The Nordiques appeared to take a 1-0 lead at the 4:25 mark of the opening period when Isaiah Fox ripped a shot past Stoever (46 saves), but the referees quickly waived off the goal due to goaltending interference.
“I feel like we had bounces that didn’t go our way, but really no excuses, we need to be better from start to finish in our game plan,” Howe said.
New Jersey quickly capitalized on its good fortune. Only 21 seconds later, Zach Nazzarett and David Posma set up Nick Seitz for his first goal and a 1-0 Titans lead.
The Titans went up 2-0 late in first period on goal by Matthew Doyle. Joshua Rule and Tommy Bannister received credit for the assists.
Maine lost Fox for the rest of the game after he was given a five-minute major penalty and an unsportsmanlike penalty for high-sticking at the end of the first period. New Jersey’s Brad Zona also went off at the end of the first period for a roughing minor.
The Titans couldn’t convert on the shortened three-minute power play to start the second period.
Their lead grew to 3-0 with five-plus minutes remaining in the second, as Anthony Mollica jammed home a rebound of Blake Humphrey’s shot past Nordiques goalie Tyriq Outten (33 saves).
Maine responded with a goal by Tristan Fasig, his 11th of the season, with 4:43 remaining in the second period. Assists went to Caden Pattison and James Philpott.
Seitz, set up on the doorstep of Outen’s crease, netted his second goal after a rebound of Anthony Calafiore’s shot early in the third period.
Humphrey added the Titans fifth goal in the final five minutes of the game.
The teams meet again Saturday at the Ice World Arena at 7 p.m. and then Sunday at 5 p.m.
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