BOISE, ID – The Idaho Steelheads (10-7-1-0, 21pts) defeated the Tahoe Knight Monsters (8-5-1-2, 18pts) Saturday night by a final score of 5-2 in front of a sellout crowd of 5,235 fans at the Idaho Central Arena, the 10th sellout in 10 home games this season and the 43rd consecutive regular season sellout. Idaho hits the road for a three-game series next week vs. the Trois-Rivières Lions at 5 p.m. (MT) Wednesday.
Each team produced 16 shots in the first period, but it was Tahoe with a 1-0 lead as Simon Pinard buried a one-timer from the right circle at 7:10.
Idaho scored three times in a span of 7:31 as they led 3-1 after the second period. Jade Miller (2nd) tied the contest at 1-1 at 10:57 with a deflection in front on a point shot from Connor Punnett. 3:04 later Punnett (2nd) put Idaho out in front at 14:01 with a wrist shot from the left circle on a setup from the center point by Hank Crone. With 88 seconds left in the stanza Nick Canade (3rd) received a pass down the center lane of the offensive zone from Brendan Hoffmann and Canade deked out Jordan Papirny making it 3-1. Shots were 19-8 Idaho.
Sloan Stanick made it a one goal game scoring at 6:24 of the third period. Lynden McCallum (8th) capitalized with 3:48 to play in the game when a Knight Monsters player tried to clear the puck but his stick broke. McCallum scooped the puck up in the left circle and snapped a wrist shot home making it 4-2. On the next face-off Tahoe pulled Papirny and Connor MacEachern (10th) scored on the empty net with 2:57 to play for the 5-2 final score.
Tomas Sholl made 38 saves on 40 shots in the win while Jordan Papirny made 35 saves on 39 shots in the loss.
ICCU Three Stars
1) Nick Canade (IDH, 1-1-2, +2, 1 shot)
2) Tomas Sholl (IDH, 38 saves)
3) Connor Punnett (IDH, 1-1-2, +2, 5 shots)
GAME NOTES
- Idaho went 0-for-2 on the power-play while Tahoe went 0-for-3.
- Each team had 40 shots.
- Thomas Caron (DNP), Romain Rodzinski (DNP), and Slava Demin (INJ) did not dress for Idaho.
- Brendan Hoffmann increased his point-streak to five games with two assists.
- Lynden McCallum and Connor MacEachern each have goals in back-to-back games.
- Connor Punnett and Nick Canade each finished with a goal and an assist.
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