Jackals Stumble In Weekend Finale Against Brampton

BRAMPTON, ON - The Jackals came up short in their search for the weekend sweep as they fell 4-1 in today's Sunday matinee against the Brampton Beast. However, Elmira did take two out of three games versus the Beast this weekend and finished the season series with a 5-1-0 record.

The Jackals entered today's contest without trailing Brampton all season, but Chad Painchaud changed that at 16:43 of the opening frame. Bobby Hughes, who finished with four points, fed the puck ahead for Jason Pitton and the Beast's leading goal-scorer played role reversal with Painchaud, who leads Brampton in assists, with a backdoor feed on a two-on-one. Brampton out-shot the Jackals 11-7 in the opening stanza.

In the second period, Hughes capitalized twice and extended Brampton's lead to 3-0. His first goal of the night came at 3:27 of the middle frame. Hughes buried a wrist shot past Jackals netminder Sam Marotta from the right circle for his fourth goal of the season. Mathew Maione and Brayden Rose assisted Hughes' even-strength marker. Hughes would net his second goal of the game and fifth of the season on the power-play at 18:36 of the second period. Pitton and Painchaud were credited with the helpers. The tempers began to boil as the game progressed and Andrew Conboy's net-front presence drew the attention of Stephon Thorne, which resulted in two-minute roughing penalties and 10-minute misconducts for each player.

Conboy and Thorne would return for the third period, but at 10:23 of the final frame Conboy ran into Cal Wild and the boiling point burst into a chaotic scene. Conboy was given a five-minute major penalty for cross-checking, a five-minute match penalty for attempting to injure an opponent and a game misconduct. Wild received a two-minute minor for roughing. The Jackals were left short-handed for the remainder of regulation as they attempted to come back from a three-goal deficit. Zach Tolkinen breathed some life into the comeback effort with a shorthanded goal at 12:25 of the period, but that would be as close as the Jackals would come. Maione added a power-play goal at 19:24 to seal the win for the Beast. Tyler Donati and Hughes added the assists on Maione's eighth goal of the season.

Sam Marotta turned aside 29 of 33 shots faced but was handed the loss. Trevor Cann stopped 25 of 26 shots faced and earned the win.