Sentinels Continue March Through Topeka, 5-3

Topeka returned to their home ice on Saturday night looking for a more structured effort after their Friday night loss to the Indiana Sentinels. The Scarecrows found ways to score but struggled to find consistency against the revamped Indiana squad and needed to find a way to spark offense coming into their final matchup in January. 

The Scarecrows got things going with some aggression and puck luck as Alex Norwinski pinched in and launched a shot towards the net and Elijah Wilson tipped home his 16th goal of the season to give Topeka the 1-0 lead just 4:24 into the game. 3:13 later Maximus Marek-Tortorella came down the far side and found a hole in Sammy Bernard's arm to tie the game up. 3:30 later Jhuwon Davis scored his second of the weekend and of the season to give Indiana their first lead of the evening. At 18:43 Jonas Leas dropped a puck to Bohdan Zinchenko who pinched in on Bernard who stymied two attempts before Zinchenko was able to put one behind Sammy for the third goal of the period and his first goal since late November. 

 Once again the Scarecrows came crashing in again during period two with a change in net as Bryn Sommerfeldt made his Scarecrows debut. With both sides testing their special teams it was five on five play that saw the lone goal of the middle period as Tyler Inlow took a pass in the slot from recently released Hugo Koch and fired it off a couple of legs and behind John Werber to bring Topeka back within one, 3-2.

 After numerous special teams attempts it was Indiana who struck first as Ethan Esposito sent a shot off the right pad of Sommerfeldt that bounced up and over and trickled in for a 4-2 lead. The Scarecrows answered back with netminder pulled as Aldiyar Nurlan buried one behind Werber to close the gap back to one, but an empty netter from Zinchenko closed out the game 5-3 for Indiana.

Bernard stopped 6 of the 9 while Sommerfeldt took the loss stopping 12 of 13.

Topeka returns home next weekend to face off with the Blue Ridge Bobcats next Friday night at 7:05pm. Get your tickets on Ticketmaster or at the Cable Dahmer Box Office.