STATELINE, NV. – The Idaho Steelheads (33-15-4-0) fell 7-4 to the Tahoe Knight Monsters (26-20-2-3) Saturday night at Tahoe Blue Event Center. The Steelheads are next in action back home, beginning a two-game set with the Wichita Thunder on Wednesday, with puck drop from Idaho Central Arena set for 7:10 p.m. MST.
Tahoe once again opened the scoring on Saturday, with Jordan Gustafson netting his fourth of the season at 5:19 of the opening frame to give the Knight Monsters a 1-0 lead. Idaho would quickly respond, with Mitch Wahl banking a puck in off Tahoe goaltender Cam Whitehead from below the goal line to even the score just 39 seconds later.
The remainder of the first period was controlled by the Knight Monsters, as a power play goal from Luke Adam shifted the momentum back in their favor at the midway point of the frame, before Adam struck again 15 minutes into the game to give Tahoe a 3-1 lead heading into the second period.
In the middle frame, the lead was extended further, with Trent Swick skating into a loose puck in the neutral zone and beating Idaho goaltender Jake Barczewski from the left circle to give Tahoe a 4-1 edge.
Once again, the Steelheads responded, getting a power play tally from Robbie Holmes at 11:06 of the period to get back within two goals, but the yo-yo act continued from there. Kevin Wall added a fifth goal for Tahoe at 16:24, before Liam Malmquist struck back for Idaho to cut the deficit to 5-3 heading into the third period.
In the third, two quick goals by Gustafson put the game out of reach, as he tallied his second and third goals of the game just 1:09 apart to earn his first ECHL hat trick and give Tahoe a 7-3 lead. Kaleb Pearson added one more goal for Idaho late in the third, striking on the power play for his 20th goal of the season, but it was too little too late in an eventual 7-4 loss for the Steelheads.
Idaho’s Jake Barczewski stopped 20 of 27 shots in the loss, while Tahoe’s Cam Whitehead turned aside 45 of 49 shots in the win.
ICCU THREE STARS
1) Jordan Gustafson (TAH, 3-3-6, +4, 5 shots, first ECHL hat trick)
2) Luke Adam (TAH, 2-0-2, +1, 2 shots)
3) Kevin Wall (TAH, 1-2-3, +3, 3 shots)
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