Behind Dominik Bartecko’s two goals, the New Jersey Titans built a lead and held on to defeat the Maine Nordiques on Saturday night.
Maine scored three straight goals, but the Titans topped the Nordiques 4-3 in an NAHL East Division contest at the Middletown Ice World Arena in Middletown, New Jersey.
“It’s a really good sign and character effort,” Nordiques coach Nick Skerlick said. “We were without Nick Bernardo, David Helledy, Liam Gilmartin, Aidan Dixon. We are very shorthanded in terms of roles on the team.”
Dixon, Bernardo, and Gilmartin are dealing with injuries while Helledy is serving his third game of a four-game suspension.
It was the second win in a row for the Titans over the Nordiques.
Bartecko scored his first goal of the game nearly five minutes into the first.
“With the constraints, I don’t want to say poor officiating, but not really good officiating, the first goal was four feet offsides, and it’s on video,” Skerlick said. “We talked to them. I feel like we got the short end of the stick with them. We were about to tie the game up with three minutes left and they called an interference call. The boys did a good job keeping their cool, no game misconducts.”
Jack Hillier, who had one of the two assists on Bartecko’s first goal, made it 2-0 for the Titans (35-22-3, 73 points) late in the opening frame. Bartecko had an assist.
Arhip Sidarovich beat Maine goalie Carter Richardson (38 saves) early into the second stanza for a 3-0 advantage. Nikita Meshcheryakov picked up his third assist of the game.
Bartecko scored again about 17 minutes into the second, with Lucas Marshall recording his second straight assist.
Maine’s (37-16-6, 80 points) offense came around in the final minutes of the second period, first with defenseman JP Steele’s shot getting by Titans goalie Dylan Krick (36 saves). Zion Green and Kellen Murphy had the helpers.
Fellow defenseman Evan Orloff cut the deficit to 4-2 in the final minute of the middle frame. Forward Cole Hipkin set the tally up.
Both goals came on the power play.
“Our power play was good this weekend,” Skerlick said. “It’s awesome to say that because you are missing two of your power-play quarterbacks. The power play this weekend is 4-for-6 missing top of the key players like Helledy and Bernardo, and Liam is also on the power play.”
Murphy fired his 36th goal of the season 14:28 into the third period. Steele and Ryan Panico notched assists.
Maine pulled Richardson late but couldn’t get the tying goal.
The Nordiques wrap up the regular season on Sunday when they take on the Philadelphia Rebels at 3:05 p.m. in Sewell, New Jersey.
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