Rookies Shine as Breakers Down ‘Crows in Barnburner (1/9)

Biloxi, MS - After Topeka swept Biloxi last weekend, the Breakers had an important 2 game set ahead to try and begin their climb out of the Continental division’s basement. Big nights from rookies Aimy Royer and DonHeaven Veilleux combined with former Scarecrow Carter Thornton’s 2-goal performance was plenty to snap Biloxi’s 9 game skid by a final of 8-5.

With 4 new faces in the lineup, the Breakers went to work in an action packed opening 20. It took only 5 minutes for them to open the scoring for the 3rd straight game, with Brandon Lucchesi potting his 5th of the year. Carter Thornton was given one of the assists with the other belonging to recent GMHL callup DonHeaven Veilleux, his first professional point. The Breakers kept the pressure on, and just 3:35 later Darius Davidson beat Bryzgalov through the five-hole for his 4th goal in his last 5 games. The assists went to another pair of new faces, with Aimy Royer notching his first pro point and Connor Mullins with his first since returning to Biloxi. Moments after the ensuing draw, Cory Checco was booked for a trip and the Breakers went a man up. However, a few turnovers at the blue line led to a pair of Topeka shorthanded tallies in the next minute. At 9:17 Clark sniped a bullet over the shoulder of new Biloxi netminder Rahul Sharma. And then at 10:05, Scott Coash buried a 2-on-1 rush for his team leading 14th of the year to tie it at 2. However, the Breakers’ resilience was on full display. At 10:42, just 37 seconds after the Sneath goal, Trey Fischer stuffed home a rebound to put Biloxi back ahead at 3-2 on the powerplay. Into the final couple minutes, the Breakers had more offense up their sleeve. At 18:12, Lucas Piekarczyk fired a juicy rebound into the twine on the man advantage to make it 4-2. But the most meaningful mark came just 38 seconds later, with former Scarecrow Carter Thornton one timing a cross crease feed past Bryzgalov to make it 5-2. The 5th goal marks the Breakers highest total in a frame this season, while outshooting Topeka 20-8.

Into the middle chapter, Topeka’s frustrations evolved into a mixed bag of scrums and scraps, leading to a litter of penalty minutes between the two sides. The pinnacle came with Avery Smith and AJ Schlepp going toe to toe in the neutral zone, with each competitor getting their licks in before Smith sent Schlepp down to the sheet. The Breakers only had 4 shots in the opening 10 minutes, and needed to kick it back into gear. At 15:27, rookie Aldi Nurlan made a great play to force a turnover just outside the Breaker blue line, clearing his path for a breakaway. Finishing on the backhand, Nurlan improved the lead to 4. Topeka would respond at 17:44 with TJ Sneath shoveling a rebound home for his 9th of the year to make it 6-3. In the final couple seconds, a scrum in front resulted in a potential Topeka goal that would go to review. Upon review, the goal was kept off the scoreboard, sending the teams to the room separated by 3. 

20 more minutes to end the 9 game slide. The Breakers started off in the right direction, with Carter Thornton potting his second of the night at the 3:30 mark to make it 7-3. Topeka’s frustrations only grew, but this time were harnessed to offense. At 5:11 Cory Checco fired a missile off a catch and release in tight to pull to within 3. Things got real interesting across the midway point when TJ Sneath located a rebound and flipped it home to make it 7-5 with just inside 8 minutes left. 41 seconds later, rookie Aimy Royer tucked a 2 on 1 chance home off a feed from Davidson for his first pro goal to make it 8-5. The score held as the Breakers snapped their skid and inked their first win since December 6th. The 8 goal effort also marks the highest goal total in franchise history.

Biloxi improves to 6-20-1, as Topeka falls to 16-9-0. The two teams will battle for the 4th consecutive time once again tomorrow night at 7:00 inside the Coliseum.