The Norwich Sea Captains beat the Northeast Generals 3-1 Saturday evening, November 12 in North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) action. After two scoreless periods of play at the New England Sports Village all four of the game’s goals were scored in the final period. Brendan Pellerito was outstanding in the Norwich net and the offense was powered by three different goal scorers as well as a two assist performance from Sava Makarenko.
The first two periods saw both teams have the run of play for chunks of time, but neither was able to find the net. Pellerito turned away 15 second period shots, 26 total through two periods, from the Northeast offensive attack.
9:24 into the third period the Sea Captains were able to draw first blood. Teagen Beier lugged the puck through the neutral zone, made a curl to buy some time for himself and then found Sava Makarenko who tapped the puck to Erik Masengill. The defenseman’s first NA3HL goal found the back of the net through a maze of Generals to stake Norwich to the 1-0 lead. Jacob Begich doubled the lead at the 14:22 mark when his shot from just inside the blue line eluded the Northeast netminder. Makarenko earned his second primary assist of the evening on the goal. The Generals halved the lead slightly more than two minutes later when they were able to bang home a puck in a goalmouth scramble with 3:31 left to play. The Norwich defense held off the Northeast attack, including with their goalie pulled of the extra player, until Sean Loftus buried an empty net goal with fifteen seconds left to play to seal the deal.
“Saturday night’s game was a great example of what Sea Captains hockey is supposed to look like. The team effort was outstanding. We were disciplined and hard to play against. We stuck to our core values and that helped us secure a key road win,” explained Loftus.
The Sea Captains and Generals meet again on Sunday, November 20 and Tuesday, November 22 to complete the Norwich schedule prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. Sunday’s game will be at 12:30 PM in Attleboro, MA with the return engagement slated for 12 PM on Tuesday at the RoseGarden Ice Arena in Norwich, CT. Tickets for Tuesday and all remaining Sea Captains home games are available HERE.