Knight Monsters fall to Idaho 5-2 | Local News

The Tahoe Knight Monsters (8-6-1-1, 18 points) lost to the Idaho Steelheads (10-7-1, 21 points) 5-3 in the third game of their road series. For the second straight year, Tahoe was unable to beat Idaho goaltender Tomas Sholl, who picked up his third win against the Knight Monsters this season.

Sloan Stanick and Simon Pinard both scored goals, but it wasn’t enough against a strong Steelheads offense that scored 5+ goals for the second straight year.

The first half was fast-paced and both teams had a whopping 16 shots on goal. But only the Knight Monsters managed to score as Simon Pinard fired a one-timer from the right circle past Sholl to make it 1-0.

Tahoe goalkeeper Jordan Papirny stopped all 16 shots he faced in the first game, including several long-range saves on high-danger Idaho chances.

But similar to Friday night, everything fell apart for Tahoe in the second game.

They allowed three goals and built an 18-9 lead, including a 16-4 run in the first 15 minutes of play. Jade Miller got the Steelheads on the field with a tuck-in off a slap shot from Connor Punnett. Punnett would then fire a wrist shot from the left circle to give Idaho the lead three minutes later.

With less than 90 seconds left and Tahoe reeling, Nick Canade scored to make it 3-1 and the buzzer sounded in another dominant Steelheads second moment. The Knight Monsters had a power play early in the second period that could have doubled their lead, but they were unable to capitalize on the advantage.

Tahoe showed some life early in the third period with a goal from Sloan Stanick and a series of chances that led to them defeating Idaho 12-2. But Sholl stood firm after allowing the one goal and blocked the Knight Monsters for the rest of the game.

Lynden McCallum scored the game-winning goal with less than four minutes to play. Tahoe had a few good chances seconds earlier, but Artur Cholach grabbed his stick in the D-zone, causing McCallum to jump up, and he sank a wrister to make it 4-2.

Idaho would score an empty-net goal less than a minute later to officially seal the game and the series victory.

This game marks the first time this year that Tahoe has suffered back-to-back regulation losses. What’s harder to understand, however, is how these losses came about: After completely dominating Idaho in game one, they looked like a completely different team in games two and three.

Tahoe will try to regroup for its two-game set in Allen, Texas, against the Americans. Game one takes place on Tuesday, December 3rd at 5:10 p.m.

The Tahoe Knight Monsters contributed to this report.