What a Friday slate of action that took place at Endicott College. Two very exciting games that had fans in the rink and everywhere going crazy with the exceptional play of four teams. No doubt the craziest game of the day and maybe in tournament history (certainly right up there with the historic St. Norbert v. Massachusetts-Boston battle) was a seesaw affair between Adrian and the University of New England that saw five lead changes, fifteen goals scored, an extra attacker goal to tie the game, a major penalty called from a video review and an overtime power play goal that finally ended the game. On a much needed rest day before the championship game, here are the coaches’ thoughts on an experience that was new and different for everyone.
Adam Krug – “Ummmm, Wild! I have never experienced anything like it. From a 2-0 lead to start to being down 5-2, I have never experienced ebbs and flows like that. You know to claw back in and go up 6-5 – blow that – be down – get it to overtime with an extra-attacker goal and then this guy [Alessio Luciani] finishes it with a nice play in overtime. I have just never seen anything like that game. I am so proud of our guys for digging in because we could have folded the tent when it was 5-2. We make a goalie change and anytime that happens, you know the wheels have come off a little bit. We were grasping at straws trying to do anything we possibly could, and our guys just stuck with it. They listened to our messages about being positive and believing and they did that. I can’t be more proud of our guys just the way they battled through it.”
Kevin Swallow – “I thought last weekend’s game at Utica was a wild game but this one was twice as wild. I mean just the momentum swings and the lead changes that happened. I couldn’t tell you who scored the first goal, but they scored, we scored a bunch in a row – I think we were up three goals at one point, and they came rallying back. They took the lead we took the lead in the third period, and they tie it up with a minute left in the game and then…. No comment on overtime.”
“I have been involved in some wild ones, some high-scoring ones but the amount of momentum shifts in that game, the amount of leads back and forth – they went up, we went up, they went up, we went up, they win it 8-7? We were preaching team defense all week – our goal was to come in and try to win this one, 1-zero. It was one of the wildest games I have ever seen. Brad Church, my assistant coach, played ten years of pro hockey, coached at the pro level, he’s a little older and been around the game longer and he said he’s never been part of a seen a game like that before.”
This writer is still trying to absorb everything that happened in that game yesterday and I am sure the players and coaches are doing the same in what can only be termed an NCAA Instant Classic on the ice.
