TOPEKA, Kan. – Lone Star forward Pete Kessel scored three straight goals in the first 21 minutes of the game and the Brahmas held off a late Topeka surge en route to a 4-2 NAHL victory over the RoadRunners Friday night at the Kansas ExpoCentre.
The victory leaves the Brahmas at 25-8-1 and atop the NAHL South Division. Topeka falls to 11-20-3. The two teams finish off the weekend series Saturday night at 7:05 p.m.
Kessel got Lone Star off and running with his 17th goal of the season, banging home Austin Kramer’s original attempt 3:07 into the game against Topeka goaltender Ben Churchfield (19 saves). Thirteen minutes later Kramer set up Kessel again, this time on a 2-on-1 break. Kessel walked in on Churchfield and fired a low shot to the glove side for a 2-0 lead.
Just over a minute into the second Kessel finished off his hat trick, taking a nice cross-crease feed from Drake Glover and beating Churchfield.
The RoadRunners, however, began to rebound after killing off consecutive penalties just after Kessel’s third. Topeka captain Marshall Bowery cut the lead to 3-1 halfway through the period, beating Lone Star goalie Alec Calvaruso with a hard wire past the goalie’s glove from 20 feet out. Peyton Frantti and Nick Granowicz assisted.
Topeka got on a roll in the third period and held a territorial advantage for much of the period. Just 3:39 in, the RoadRunners made it a 3-2 game when Max Harper notched his 13th of the year, shoveling the puck just inside the post to Calvaruso’s stick side. Defensemen Jack DeMatto and Matthew Barnes assisted.
The Brahmas, however, got their two-goal lead back 10 minutes later when Julian Biondo broke in from the right wing and had his wrister deflect off Churchfield’s glove.
Both teams were unsuccessful on the power play. The Runners went 0-for-2 and Lone Star was 0-for-3.
