The Skatin’ Rebels finished their away series against the Grand Canyon Ice Lopes Saturday night with a 5-2 victory and a series sweep.
UNLV came out of the gates well, playing tight and fast hockey, however a loose puck from a Ice Lope turnover in the offensive zone provided Preston Larson with a prime scoring chance in the slot, where he cashed in to put GCU up 1-0.
The Lopes continued to pour on the offense and forced goaltender Vince Benedetto to make multiple tough saves.
UNLV tied the game shortly thereafter, with Las Vegas native Brenden Fehlig potting his second goal of the season off of a beautiful passing display.
“It’s always nice to score. I was playing with two great teammates this weekend,” Fehlig said. “Max [Johnson] and Cole [Wyatt] looked for me on both goals, I didn’t have to do much on my part.”
Penalty trouble soon followed UNLV through the remainder of the period, seeing the likes of Fehlig, Max Johnson, Alec Johnson, Hunter Muzzillo and others going to the penalty box.
None of the penalties burnt the Rebels, as they killed off each one.
UNLV continued to have penalty trouble through the opening half of the second period, but would kill off each penalty.
The Rebels would go up 2-1 midway through the frame, with Hunter Muzzillo firing one past Lopes goaltender Scott Kasabowski.
Muzzillo’s goal would be followed up by Brendan Manning tucking one off of a feed from Jayson Dimizio to extend the Rebel lead to 3-1.
Max Johnson joined in on the scoring late in the period, putting one in the net and putting the Skatin’ Rebels up 4-1.
Both teams would exchange penalties through to the end of the period, with Lopes forward Blake Billings taking a penalty late to give the Rebels 33 seconds of carryover powerplay time to begin the third.
More penalties and roughness after the whistle carried into the final period, with multiple fights and heavy hits on both sides.
The Lopes found the back of the net after a mess in front of Benedetto to bring them within two.
Michael Boutoussov washed out the newfound two goal deficit for the Lopes as he found himself on a breakaway and buried the final goal of the game, putting the Rebels up 5-2.
GCU began to pour on the offense and get scoring chance after scoring chance late, but Benedetto and the UNLV defense stood tall, and stoned each chance.
The Skatin’ Rebels held on for the win, marking their 10th straight including their sweep of the ACHA Chicago Classic.
“We knew what we had to do as a team this weekend,” Muzzillo said post-game. “We’re not too happy with our performance but you live and you learn. We got two wins, and at the end of the night that’s all that matters.”
The two wins on the weekend propels the Rebels into third in their division standings, three points behind the second place Arizona Wildcats, and five behind Western Collegiate Hockey League leader Missouri State.
The Road Ahead
UNLV returns home to City National Arena for a series against the Arizona State Sun Devils Dec. 10-11, with puck drop coming at 7:30 p.m. for both contests.
UNLV will hit the holiday break following its series against ASU, and will return on Jan. 13-15, 2022 against the Jamestown Jimmies, once again at home.
Tickets for both series are available at the door on gameday, or at rebelhockey.com/tix.
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