Sents Come from Behind Again to Sweep the Northern Lights

Coming off of an exciting come from behind victory in front of a capacity crowd last night, the Indiana Sentinels and their fans were ready to see a bit more of a complete performance on the ice in the final game of the weekend set.

With the nervous energy out of the way, and the cobwebs shaken off, this game was primed to showcase just who this Indiana Sentinels team wants to be this season. However, the Sentinels were a tad slow out of the gates for the second straight night, and the Northern Lights jumped on them in the first.

Declan Conway opened up the scoring and picked up his third goal of the season after finding the puck on his stick from a failed Sentinels clearing attempt. He ripped a shot from the circles and beat John Werber underneath the glove to give Minnesota the 1-0 lead.

Just fifty seconds later, Minnesota capitalized on another defensive blunder from the Sentinels and Lucas Viskovicz was able to tap home a perfect centering pass from Hunter Alden, beating Werber on the blocker side to give the Northern Lights a 2-0 lead.

The Sentinels would lead 11 to 7 in the shot category after the first but never got a solid opportunity to get prolonged offensive zone time.

The second period would be an entirely different story.

The Sentinels put together their most dominant period of this early season, dominating the Minnesota Northern Lights and putting up 5 goals on 19 shots. It all started with a powerplay tally from Ben Stefanini who settled down a Ross Bartlett pass with his foot and was able to whack the puck home with his school just before it crossed the line.

Just 13 seconds later, the Sentinels converted on a turnover and Thomas Miller was the beneficiary, picking up his first FPHL goal to tie the game at two apiece.

Ross Bartlett would give Indiana their first lead of the period after being perfectly set up by a Thomas Miller pass. All Bartlett had to do was hit the open cage and he had his first in a Sentinels uniform.

The fun did not stop there. Ryan Brow picked up his second of the season, on what could have been a carbon copy of the goal he scored last night. A seeing eye wrister from the point that whistled past Bailey Huber on the glove side, and just like that the Sentinels had a two-goal lead.

Just before the period would end, Ben Stefanini rifled home his second goal, and fourth point of the period. He and Bartlett, who also picked up his fourth point of the period, worked together on a nice passing play and Stefanini roofed a wrister just underneath the bar to make it 5-2. Stefanini’s two tallies are the first he has had since February of last season.

“It felt good to get back on the board, its always more about the team though,” said Stefanini. “Tough to go down 2-0 for the second game in a row. We need to start better. On a positive note, there’s a lot of resiliency on this time by not allowing anything else after those first two.”

It was not all positive in the second for the Sentinels as John Werber suffered a lower body injury after making an awkward right pad stop. He needed to be helped off the ice, and Cooper Olson finished the remainder of the game.

The third period was not nearly as smooth as the second had been. Both sides got caught up in the rough stuff with 5 players getting ejected in the third. Aaron Shahin, Vaughn Clouston and Ross Bartlett hit the showers early for the Sentinels, while Declan Conway and Chris Corgan were tossed from the Northern Lights.

In the end, the Indiana Sentinels pulled off the series sweep with a final score of 5-2. It is the first time in franchise history the Sentinels have pulled off a sweep on home ice. They start out the season 2-0 and head to Topeka for their first road trip of the year.

“It’s great we got this start, but good teams win three in a row. Good teams that have success win three in a row and you have to do it consistently,” said Everett Thompson.

You can catch all the action next weekend on the Sentinels Hockey Network on YouTube. Andy will have all of the coverage starting at 8:15 pm ET with the Body Armor Pre-Game Show, and the puck drops at 8:30 pm ET.

#LetsGoSents