Knight Monsters win first of three-game series in Maine, lose second

Sunday will be the deciding game between the Lake Tahoe Knight Monsters and Maine Mariners. On Friday, the Knight Monsters won a thrilling overtime game in their first matchup of 2025. It was their third straight win. The story changed on Sunday when the Tahoe team lost to the Mariners, 3-0. The two teams will meet again at noon on Sunday for the deciding game. The Knight Monsters' record is now 19-9-2-1.

Friday

The Knight Monsters executed a comeback victory, defeating the Mariners 3-2. Brennan Kapcheck scored the game-sealing goal, Simon Pinard tallied his 18th goal of the season, and netminder Jordan Papirny was sensational to secure the win.

With this victory, the Knight Monsters have now won five of their last six overtime contests, and the two points help them keep pace with Kansas City at the top of the Mountain Division.

There was furious back-and-forth action in the first period, with Maine carding multiple grade-A scoring chances. But Papirny stayed sharp throughout, making some incredible saves in the process.

But the Mariners struck first on a two-on-one bid by Jimmy Lambert to open the scoring with under two minutes to go in the opening frame.

Just 90 seconds later, the Knight Monsters responded on the power play, as Simon Pinard ripped a wrister past Maine netminder Ryan Bischel to tie up the game. The power play goal was his 8th of the season, tying his total from last year with Savannah and putting him atop the ECHL leaderboard.

Tahoe flipped the script in the second, outshooting Maine 15-8 and dominating the high-danger looks. But it was the Mariners that took the lead back on a wicked wrister from Lynden McCallum that made it 2-1.

Enter Jake McGrew, who put together an unstoppable sequence with three chances in a row on the doorstep, burying his third to tie the game at two. It was his ninth goal of the season and game at the exact right time, just four minutes after the Knight Monsters ceded the lead.

Papirny shined the brightest in the third, saving all 13 shots he saw. He would end up finishing the contest with 34 saves on 36 shots for his seventh win of the season.

Neither team scored in the third period, and the buzzer sounded to signal Tahoe’s third trip to overtime in the past week.

And it only took Kapcheck 42 seconds to finish the job.

He took a stretch pass from Bear Hughes for a breakaway to the net, and pulled off a fantastic move on Bischel to find the five-hole and win the game for Tahoe.

Saturday

Maine rode great special teams play, and their goaltender Nolan Maier was spectacular in the victory.

The Mariners wasted no time in the first period, striking just under three minutes in on a deflection goal past Tahoe netminder Jesper Vikman. It was the second game in a row where Tahoe had allowed the game opening goal against Maine.

And they would cede the second goal as well while shorthanded, as Maine defender Justin Bean fired a seeing-eye shot from distance past Vikman to double the lead. While Tahoe outshot the Mariners 15-7 in the opening frame, they were unable to solve Maier.

Maier continued to shine in the second period, stopping all nine shots he saw and stonewalling both of Tahoe’s power plays in the middle 20. Neither side was able to get an extra leg up in the frame, and the buzzer sounded with Tahoe still down two entering the third.

An early third period goal by Mariners’ defender Alex Sheehy made it 3-0 Maine just under three minutes into the third. And the final buzzer would sound with that being the score, with Maier finishing the contest with 37 saves in the shutout.

The Knight Monsters are on the road until their next home game on Friday, January 24.