DANBURY, CT– After a midweek overtime defeat to snap their 10-game winning streak, the Maryland Black Bears looked to start up a new streak starting with the Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks. It was a weekend that gave the Maryland Black Bears their first real taste of adversity for the team, leading to a split of the weekend.
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1st, 2025: BLACK BEARS (5) at Danbury (4): The Black Bears started the scoring off under three minutes into the game with Victor Mannebratt crashing the net and putting home a Ryan Franks rebound to make it 1-0 Black Bears. However, the power play for the Black Bears had a rough time in their first attempt, first with Austin Michaud scoring a shorthanded breakaway goal and a minute later, Brendan Boring scored a breakaway shorthanded goal on a turnover to make it 2-1 Danbury in short order. With a power play late in the frame, Matt Dabrowski used his speed to beat the Maryland defense to score with the extra man and make it 3-1 for Danbury going into the first intermission.
The power play for Maryland redeemed themselves with Ryan Franks finishing off a tic-tac-toe passing play from Victor Mannebratt to Harrison Smith to Josh Frenette with Franks finishing the scoring to make it a one-goal deficit. The physical play picked up in a big way, with plenty of extracurricular activities going on, even goalie Ryan Denes trying to get in on the physicality. With the tension high, the teams would go to the locker room with Maryland trailing 3-2.
It took only 57 seconds for Maryland to tie the game with Trey Hinton ripping home a shot from the top of the circles to level the score. The penalty kill came up big midway through the frame after going down two men and not allowing Danbury to get many chances on net. After the kill, the Black Bears would go ahead with Anthony Pellitteri scoring his first NAHL goal thanks to a great hold at the line by Owen Drury, who gave it to Pellitteri and he fired it home to give Maryland the lead. Danbury would tie the game up again with Kai Mencel breaking through and putting home his first to level the game with 5:12 remaining. Maryland pushed the pace and Hinton would score again after a bumper pass from Logan Deuling to give Maryland the lead with under two minutes left, which they would hold to get the win on Saturday afternoon.
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 2nd 2025: BLACK BEARS (3) at Danbury (6): The start on Sunday was as disastrous as it could be for Maryland, as Willem Kerr opened the scoring for Danbury with a shot through traffic to make it 1-0 only 1:27 into the game. Moments later, Luke Melnik potted another one for Danbury on a rebound to make it 2-0 for Danbury. Then just before the middle of the frame, Ben Dempster snuck in down the wing and wristed one home to make it 3-0 for Danbury and ended Dom Gatto’s night after just 8:37 in the first period. While Maryland created some chances later in the frame, including a shorthanded chance, Danbury made it 4-0 with a scrum in front of the net and Matt Shpungin getting the last touch with only 29 seconds left in the frame.
Maryland got back into it in the second, with Tanner Duncan converting on an early power play goal to get the Black Bears on the board. Moments later, the Black Bears cut the lead in half with Brady Anes redirecting a Liam Doherty shot to make it 4-2. Emotions were running high on both sides as the chippiness continued, though no fights broke out. Maryland had a major power play, but could not convert and needed to kill a couple of penalties of their own, but would go into the locker room still down two goals.
Danbury would get the first strike in the third, with Matt Dabrowski getting behind the defense to make it 5-2 for Danbury. Tempers finally boiled over with Jaden Sikura and Dabrowski getting into a sparing match in the middle of the frame. Danbury finished off their game with an empty netter from Tanner Terranova. Lachlan Bommer put one in late in the period, but it wasn’t enough as Danbury won 6-3.
The Black Bears are back home this coming weekend, as they welcome the New Jersey Titans. Tickets available at Tickets.MarylandBlackBears.com or the Piney Orchard box office.
Clutch And Crab Hockey 