What a way to start the new year.

In their first game of 2025, the Tahoe Knight Monsters executed a comeback victory in overtime, defeating the Maine Mariners 3-2. Brennan Kapcheck scored the game-sealing goal, Simon Pinard tallied his 18th goal of the season, and netminder Jordan Papirny was sensational to secure the win.

With this victory, the Knight Monsters have now won five of their last 6 overtime contests, and the two points help them keep pace with Kansas City at the top of the Mountain Division. 

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There was furious back-and-forth action in the first period, with Maine carding multiple grade-A scoring chances. But Papirny stayed sharp throughout, making some incredible saves in the process.

But the Mariners struck first on a two-on-one bid by Jimmy Lambert to open the scoring with under two minutes to go in the opening frame. 

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Just 90 seconds later, the Knight Monsters responded on the power play, as Simon Pinard ripped a wrister past Maine netminder Ryan Bischel to tie up the game. The power play goal was his 8th of the season, tying his total from last year with Savannah and putting him atop the ECHL leaderboard.

Tahoe flipped the script in the second, outshooting Maine 15-8 and dominating the high-danger looks. But it was the Mariners that took the lead back on a wicked wrister from Lynden McCallum that made it 2-1.

Enter Jake McGrew, who put together an unstoppable sequence with three chances in a row on the doorstep, burying his third to tie the game at two. It was his ninth goal of the season and game at the exact right time, just four minutes after the Knight Monsters ceded the lead.

Papirny shined the brightest in the third, saving all 13 shots he saw. He would end up finishing the contest with 34 saves on 36 shots for his seventh win of the season. 

Neither team scored in the third period, and the buzzer sounded to signal Tahoe’s third trip to overtime in the past week.

And it only took Kapcheck 42 seconds to finish the job.

He took a stretch pass from Bear Hughes for a breakaway to the net, and pulled off a fantastic move on Bischel to find the five-hole and win the game for Tahoe.

The Knight Monsters improve their record to 19-8-2-1 and have now won three straight heading into game two against Maine. Puck drop on Saturday is slated for 3 p.m.

Roster Changes

The Knight Monsters also started the new year with multiple roster changes, signing defender Dominic Vidoli and forward Isaac Johnson, and trading forward Blake Christensen to the Kalamazoo Wings for future considerations.

Christensen skated in 14 games for the Knight Monsters this season, scoring three goals and adding five assists. He scored his first goal of the season against the Kansas City Mavericks on November 23, and had a game-opening goal against Tulsa on December 8. 

Vidoli, 25, played 11 games in Hungary this season as a member of Ferencvárosi TC, and spent four years in the NCAA with Ohio State and Omaha. In his three years at Ohio State, the Strongsville, OH, native carded four goals and eight assists in 57 games, and added a goal and an assist in 19 games in his final collegiate season at Omaha.

Johnson, 25, played seven games in Finland this season with Jukurit without notching a point. He has spent time at both the AHL level and the ECHL level with the Manitoba Moose, Toronto Marlies, and Newfoundland Growlers.

In his last ECHL season, he scored 31 goals and added 37 assists in just 50 games with Newfoundland. He has skated in 158 total ECHL games, including playoffs, and logged 73 goals and 91 assists. At the AHL level, he has played 30 games and scored three goals.

Vidoli and Johnson will bolster the depth of a Knight Monsters squad already stacked with talent, and these moves are part of a busy few weeks that included the Matt Murphy trade with Cincy.