Tony Donatelli scored two goals and the visiting Blast earned a 6-3 win over the Syracuse Silver Knights on Thursday night.
The Silver Knights scored the first goal of the game when Kenardo Forbes found the back of the net at the 1:12 mark. Seconds later, the Blast answered when Jamie Thomas recorded his second goal of the season assisted by Sofiane Tergou.
Syracuse regained the lead when Antonio Manfut scored off an assist from Forbes. The Blast tied the game at 2 late in the second quarter when Vini Dantas assisted Juan Pereira for his fourth goal of the season. With 49 seconds left in the half, Joey Tavernese scored to put the Silver Knights up 3-2. Donatelli scored his ninth goal of the season off an assist from Adriano Dos Santos to tie the game at 3, the only goal of the third quarter.
At the 10:41 mark of the final quarter, Dos Santos scored off a rebound for his first goal of the season. In the final two minutes, the Blast offense scored back to back goals after Syracuse brought on a sixth attacker. Jonatas Melo recorded his sixth goal of the season and Donatelli scored his second of the night to seal the victory. William Vanzela made 11 saves.
The Blast play at the Harrisburg Heat tonight at 7:35.
NBA
The Washington Wizards' nationally televised game on ESPN against the Boston Celtics on Jan. 11 has been replaced by a matchup between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis Grizzlies, drawing the ire of Wizards point guard John Wall.
"We don't get national exposure," Wall told The Washington Post on Wednesday night after the Wizards beat the Indiana Pacers, 111-104. Wall, who scored 36 points, publicly retweeted information about his team being bumped.
"I know you got to be able to win," Wall said. "We didn't get off to a great start [like] we wanted to, but we do have an All-Star that's been in the All-Star Game three times: me. And hopefully I can be [an All-Star] again, and hopefully we can add Brad [Beal] and somebody else. We had five [national games] at the beginning of the year, and now we have four. And you never know, they might take another one. I feel like it's back to what I said before: If you don't have League Pass or NBA TV, you don't see the Wizards."
Last season, the Wizards made four appearances on ESPN and two on TNT, but the additional exposure did not attract a greater audience. During those four ESPN broadcasts, Washington's games averaged 1,397,000 viewers, a decline of 15 percent from the average "NBA on ESPN" programming (1,652,000 viewers).
— Candace Buckner, The Washington Post
NHL
Keith Kinkaid made 43 saves and stopped two attempts in the shootout, helping the New Jersey Devils beat the host Washington Capitals, 2-1, on Thursday night.
New Jersey's backup goaltender was the best player on the ice for the entire game and allowed only a short-handed goal by Daniel Winnik. Jacob Josefson returned from a five-game absence caused by a concussion to score the shootout winner.
PA Parenteau scored in the second period as the Devils ended a seven-game losing streak against the Capitals. New Jersey beat Washington for the first time since Nov. 14, 2014.
Braden Holtby made 26 saves but couldn't stop Michael Cammelleri and Josefson in the shootout.
More Capitals: Defenseman Madison Bowey, one of the Washington Capitals' top prospects, suffered a slight laceration of the tendon in his ankle when struck by a skate during Wednesday's game at Syracuse, the Hershey Bears announced. He underwent a successful repair of the tendon in Syracuse on Wednesday and is expected to make a full recovery, but Bowey will be out indefinitely for Washington's American Hockey League affiliate. Bowey was expected to get an opportunity to make his NHL debut this season if injuries hit the Capitals' defense corps. A second-round draft pick by the Capitals in 2013, Bowey has three goals and nine assists in 25 games this season. In 70 games last season, he had four goals and 25 assists, despite logging little power-play time.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan, The Washington Post