Sloan Stanick, the ECHL’s Rookie of the Year, celebrates a goal earlier this season for the Tahoe Knight Monsters. Stanick scored the first goal of Tahoe’s Game 1 loss to Kansas City on Sunday, 5-3.
Photo by Ron Harpin.
The Tahoe Knight Monsters had several chances to flip home-ice advantage back in their favor Sunday in Game 1 of the ECHL Mountain Division finals against the Kansas City Mavericks.
Tahoe excelled on the power play in its first Kelly Cup playoff series in a sweep over Wichita and the Knight Monsters opened their second-round series going 3-for-3 with the man-advantage.
However, Kansas City scored five times in the third period to take a 5-3 win over Tahoe in the first game of the series.
The Knight Monsters led 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 at various points, but Kansas City scored three unanswered to end the game.
Tahoe’s opening goal came from ECHL Rookie of the Year Sloan Stanick, who finished off a rebound chance from his own shot attempt.
Stanick got loose through the middle of the ice on a pass from Bear Hughes before scoring the game’s first goal.
It was another young gun on the second tally as Simon Pinard drilled a slapshot from the top of the right circle into the back of the net with 17:13 remaining in the third period to give Tahoe a 2-1 lead.
The Knight Monsters’ third goal came from Jett Jones, who scored on a near-angle shot with nine minutes to go in regulation. Brennan Kapcheck had the assist.
Kansas City rallied with two goals in the next five minutes before scoring an empty-net goal to seal the game.
Tahoe played Kansas City in Game 2, faliing 3-0 to Kansas City. The Mavericks lead the series 2-0.
The Knight Monsters will be back at the Tahoe Blue Events Center for Games 3, 4 and 5, beginning Thursday with a 7 p.m. puck drop.