Brockport drops heartbreaker to Cortland
To say the Golden Eagles dropped a golden opportunity on Friday would be an understatement. All puns intended.
Brockport outshot Cortland, 51-38, led 2-0 in the first and 5-2 in the second, yet dropped the game, 6-5, in overtime.
Brockport could have been in a playoff spot right now, and could have been one point behind Geneseo for fifth and could have had a huge showdown with the Ice Knights this Friday at home.
Instead, it’s the Red Dragons who have now established themselves as a possible playoff contender, with a game in hand on Brockport with the same number of points and one point behind Potsdam.
The 2-0 lead was established by James Cody on a power play and Chris Marinakos. After the second goal, Michael Lysyj got one back 51 seconds later. Early in the second, Stephen Nardi tied the game.
Brockport then went on a three-goal barrage, with Chris Cangro notching the first two followed by Cody’s second with each team skating down a man.
Again, Cortland struck quickly when Joey Christiano scored a short-hander 34 seconds later. That was followed by a Nick Zappia goal to cut the lead to one before the second period ended. Jake Saville scored on a power play 55 seconds into the third period.
Zappia got the overtime game-winner on a power play at 1:20.
Meanwhile, a huge collision is gearing up for third place, as both Fredonia and Buffalo State beat Morrisville. These two teams are still tied, with a mutual date in their last game of the season.
The Blue Devils had it a bit tougher, beating the Mustangs, 5-2, in the Pink the Rink event. Curtis Renaud gave Morrisville a 1-0 lead after one. Three unanswered second period goals (Will McLaughlin, Brian Doust, and Alex Perkins) gave Fredonia a 3-1 lead, a run started just after Fredonia called time out.
“We had gotten caught out there on a real long shift,” Fredonia coach Jeff Meredith said of the early second period timeout. “I thought we were gassed at that point. It was going to be a pretty close hockey game all night. Let’s be smart about it and take our timeout and get five fresh guys out there.”
“We were anticipating they were trying to get a rest,” Morrisville coach Brian Grady said. “We had a play set there, but their wing freed the zone and they were able to get it up to him. And we were caught out a little bit. They were opportunistic.”
The key moment came in the third, when Renaud cut the lead to one, only to have Morrisville’s Bryan Ross score on a breakaway 46 seconds later. The goal put Ross in a tie for sixth on the all-time Fredonia scoring list with 129 points.
“Going up 3-1, I thought it was big,” Meredith said. “And then scoring the fourth right after they got the second to go up by two was a huge turning point. We didn’t have to play up by one for very long.”
Ben Waldman added an empty-netter to clinch the game.
Buffalo State had an easy time of it against the Mustangs, winning big, 12-3, starting the scoring 30 seconds into the game. The Bengals led 4-0 after one, 9-0 in the second, before Morrisville scored three times, and then Buffalo State added three more in the third for good measure.
Drew Klin picked up five assists, James Durham got two goals and two assists, Matt Bessing and Mac Balson each got two goals and an assist, and John Corrigan got a goal and three assists.
Other highlights
– Potsdam nearly pulled another amazing comeback in Plattsburgh like two years ago. The Cardinals led 3-0 after one on goals by Ryan Craig, Kyle Taylor, and Michael Cassidy. The Bears got two back within 42 seconds in the second (Mike Arnold on a power play and Erick Ware). Sy Nutkevitch tied it on a power play 29 seconds into the third. However, Barry Roytman saved the day for Plattsburgh, netting the game-winner on a power play at 16:30.
– After falling behind to Geneseo, 1-0, after one, Oswego scored twice in each of the subsequent periods to beat the Ice Knights, 4-1. Chris Brown, Chris Ayotte (power play), Tyler Leimbrock, and Jared Anderson got the goals for the winners. Andrew Hare made 19 saves.
– Geneseo came back the next night to route Cortland, 8-3. Jonathan Redlick scored twice, Zachary Vit got a goal and three assists, and Geneseo went three-for-nine on the power play.
– Brockport put a mini-scare into Oswego, taking a 2-0 lead on goals by James Cody and Sean Wallace. However, Oswego scored six straight goals en route to a 6-4 win. Chris Brown got the hat trick, culminating with a short-handed empty-net tally.
