Mavericks score five goals in third period to rally past Tahoe Knight Monsters in Second Round Playoff Match Up

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (KCTV) -- It wasn’t easy, but it was a victory. The KC Mavericks scored five times in the third period in game one of their second-round playoff series to beat the Tahoe Knight Monsters 5-3. With the win, the Mavericks jumped out to a 1-0 series lead.

“We just kept chipping away, chipping away, and throwing pucks on net,” said Mavs’ forward, Marcus Crawford, who scored the game-winning goal. “Good things happen when you put things on net.”

The Knight Monsters scored the only goal in the game’s first two periods to take a 1-0 lead into the third. Casey Carreau scored a short-angle goal quickly to start the final period – something Mavs’ head coach and GM Tad O’Had said was key to the win.

“Casey Carreau with that first goal to kind of get us going,” O’Had said when asked what spurred the comeback. “We had talked about really igniting that start of the third. Casey scored that bad-angle goal and then that really started it.”

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The Mavs’ 5 goals in the third period were enough to secure the victory. Cade Borchardt’s empty-netter with less than two minutes to play sealed the win.

“I think we’ve shown resiliency all year,” Carreau said after the game. “There’s been no quit. We felt like we had them. We gave up a couple of power-play goals, but we were doing our job five-on-five. We stuck with our game plan and things started working out.”

The Mavs will need to shore up their penalty kill for the rest of the series. Tahoe – one of the ECHL’s best teams with a man advantage – scored three times on the power play.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Monday night. Puck drops at Cable Dahmer Arena at 7:05 p.m. If you are interested in going to the game, you can find more info here: Kansas City Mavericks | Kansas City, MO Professional Hockey | Schedule.