The Tahoe Knight Monsters took on the Maine Mariners on Sunday. Puck drop was at 12:00 PM. The game was at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, Maine. It was the thirty second game of the season. The Knight Monsters were coming off of a 0-3 defeat to the Maine Mariners. The Tahoe Knight Monsters had a record of 19-9-3. The Knight Monsters are in 7th place in the ECHL. The Knight Monsters are 3rd in the Western Conference and 2nd in the Mountain Division. The Maine Mariners are the ECHL affiliate of the Boston Bruins. The Mariners had played twenty nine games. The Mariners were coming off of a 3-0 win over the Tahoe Knight Monsters. The Mariners had a record of 12-14-3. The Mariners were in 23rd place in the ECHL. The Mariners were in 13th place in the ECHL Eastern Conference. The Mariners were in 6th place in the ECHL Eastern Conference North division.
This was the third game of a nine game road trip for the Tahoe Knight Monsters. This was the last game of the road trip in Maine. The Knight Monsters needed to get their offense going after being shutout the night before. They needed to find ways to score. They needed to find a way to get a lead. They needed to find a way to build on their leads. The Tahoe Knight Monsters had played three more games. The Knight Monsters had seven more wins. The Knight Monsters had the better points percentage. The Knight Monsters had scored forty nine more goals. The Knight Monsters had allowed nine more goals. The Knight Monsters had the better goal differential. The Knight Monsters had fourteen more points.
#1 Jesper Vikman was in net for the Tahoe Knight Monsters. It was his seventeenth start of the season. This was the second game in a row that the Knight Monsters only used seventeen skaters. #30 Ryan Bischel was in net for the Maine Mariners it was his fifteenth start in net. On Sunday, forward Jimmy Lambert was activated from reserve by the Mariners. Defender Cory Dennis was placed on reserve by the Mariners.
Six minutes into the game, the Tahoe Knight Monsters took the lead. #17 Adam Robbins scored the goal. His goal was assisted by #14 Patrick Newell. The Knight Monsters took the puck into the offensive zone. Newell was able to get around three defenders as the Maine Mariners were changing. Newell took the puck towards the net. Newell passed the puck to Robbins in the slot. Robbins shot found the back of the net. The Mariners were way out of position. the Knight Monsters did a good job of drawing in the defenders and finding open space. The Mariners had three defenders and then two defenders chasing Newell. No one was covering the middle. Early on in the play one of the Mariners players was trying to leave the zone early. That left Robbins wide open up the middle.
Less than thirty seconds after the goal, #11 Lynden McCallum of the Mariners received a penalty for hooking. The score was 1-0 Knight Monsters after the first period.
Nine minutes into the second period, #29 Chase Zieky of the Maine Mariners received a penalty for high-sticking. Ten minutes into the second period, #12 Bear Hughes of the Tahoe Knight Monsters received a penalty for high-sticking. The Mariners ended up on a powerplay. On the powerplay, the Mariners scored to tie the game. #18 Carter Johnson scored the tying goal. His goal was assisted by #8 Jacob Hudson and #9 Brooklyn Kalmikov. The Mariners were cycling the puck with little pressure from the Knight Monsters. After a shot from the left of the goalie, the Knight Monsters failed to clear the puck. The Mariners scored on the rebound.
With six minutes left in the second period, the Knight Monsters retook the lead. The go ahead goal was scored by #15 Jake McGrew. The goal was assisted by #28 Logan Nelson and #9 Troy Loggins. The Knight Monsters had a 12-on-1 breakaway. Nelson got the puck the McGrew who scored on a wide open net. The goalie came way out to block the shot. The goalie dropped into the butterfly early and was not able to cover the net after the pass. The defender was covering the middle of the ice. He was not close enough to McGrew to put any pressure on the shot. Fairly easy goal for the Knight Monsters. The Mariners allowed the 2-on-1 breakaway and then didn’t cover the open player as much as they needed too. The Knight Monsters were able to take advantage.
With four minutes left in the second period, #20 Nick Jermain of the Mariners received a penalty for cross-checking. With three minutes left in the second period, #13 Simon Pinard of the Knight Monsters received a penalty for slashing. The score was 2-1 Knight Monsters going into the third period.
Six minutes into the third period, the Knight Monsters took a two goal lead. The goal was scored by #26 Nate Kallen. His goal was assisted by #9 Troy Loggins and #23 Jake Johnson. The Knight Monsters created another 2-on-1 opportunity to start this play. Loggins ended up passing the puck to Kallen who was trailing the play. Kallen had time and space in the slot to score. The trailing defender was able to tie up a Knight Monsters player on the 2-on-1. This allowed the other defender to be more aggressive with puck carrier. The defender ended up closing the space Loggins had. Not allowing him to pass forward or shoot. Loggins was able to get the pass off while under pressure. With the trailing defender being so aggressive on the 2-on-1, the defender was not able to turn around and cover the slot in time. The other three Mariners players were too slow to effect the play. Again more defensive mistakes on the rush lead to the Knight Monsters scoring.
With seven minutes left in the game, The Knight Monsters took a three goal lead. The goal was scored by #28 Logan Nelson. The goal was assisted by #49 Artur Cholach and #15 Jake McGrew. The was a battle for the puck along the boards. McGrew was able to get the puck to Cholach at the point. Colach was able to get the puck to Nelson on the far side. Nelson came rushing into the offensive zone. He got the puck in a wide open part of the offensive zone. He was able to score without any challenge from the Mariners. The Mariners had all five of their players on one side of the defensive zone. One Mariners player was slow to come into the battle for the puck. Another player came over to help cover the point. That left three Mariners players all at the point. If that Mariners player hadn’t come over, Nelson wouldn’t have been wide open. Cholach recognized Nelson was coming in hot and would be wide open. Again the Knight Monsters scored on a Mariners mistake.
With four minutes left in the game, the Mariners scored to cut the Knight Monsters lead back down to two goals. #20 Nick Jermain scored the goal. His goal was assisted by #26 Justin Bean and #25 Christian Berger. The Mariners were cycling in the Knight Monsters zone. They wiffed on their first shot attempt in front of the net. The second shot attempt was blacked and bounced around in the slot. The Knight Monsters failed to clear the puck. A shot from the point was tipped in. The Knight Monsters could not get the puck out of their own end. What would have stopped this from being a goal is clearing the puck up the boards instead of straight down the middle.
With just under three minutes left in the game, the mariners pulled their goalie. The Knight Monsters did score on the empty net. Goaltender #1 Jesper Vikman got the goal. The Mariners took a shot. Vikman blocked it. The puck went off the boards and all the way down into the empty net.
The final score was 5-2 Tahoe Knight Monsters.
Things started off good. The Maine Mariners would not get a another shutout. This game comes down to the Tahoe Knight Monsters being able to capitalize on their opponents mistakes. The Mariners took themselves out of the game by making mistakes at key points not allowing themselves to catch up to the Knight Monsters. On the other end the Knight Monsters did a great job of capitalizing on their scoring chances. After a lack of offense Saturday, the Knight Monsters brought it on Sunday. This game saw Jesper Vikman score the first ever goalie goal for the Tahoe Knight Monsters. The Knight Monsters ended their trip to Maine on a positive note. This trip saw several firsts for the Knight Monsters. Their first win of 2025. Their first win against the Maine Mariners. Their first time being shut out. Lastly it saw their first ever goalie goal. What a weekend of hockey.
The Maine Mariners had one more shot. The Tahoe Knight Monsters had the better shot percentage. The Mariners had two more penalty minutes. #1 Jesper Vikman saved 28 shots for a 93% save percentage for the Tahoe Knight Monsters. This is the first goaltender goal in the ECHL this season. His goal was the first goaltender goal since Oskari Salminen scored in a game between the Norfolk Admirals and Atlanta Gladiators on March 29, 2024. He is one of only eighteen goalies in the history of the ECHL to have scored a goal. The Tahoe Knight Monsters may be the first team in the ECHL to score a goalie goal in their first season. #30 Ryan Bischel saved 24 shots for a 83% save percentage for the Maine Mariners.
The Tahoe Knight Monsters have a record of 20-9-3 with 43 points in 32 games. The Knight Monsters are in 7th place in ECHL. They are in 3rd place in the ECHL Western Conference. They are in 2nd place in the ECHL Western Conference Mountain Division. They are in a playoff spot. They are six points into a playoff spot. They are one point away from the top spot in the division. They have the second highest points percentage in the division.
The Tahoe Knight Monsters take on the Rapid City Rush for game thirty three on Friday, January 10th. It will be an away game. Puck drop is scheduled for 6:05 PM. This will be a divisional game.
Zac Electrifly 
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