Mike Hayward scored with 2:11 left in regulation during a five-on-three power play to give Brockport a 2-2 tie with their local rivals, Geneseo.
It was the second two-man advantage of the period as Brockport was trying to overcome two Geneseo power-play goals.
“The five-on-three has been great since Christmas,” Brockport coach Brian Dickinson said. “I think we scored probably 90 percent of the time. We had one earlier and it just wasn’t working. We got that second one and called timeout. We put two righties in on top instead of having [Ian] Finnerty up there. Have those two guys work it back and forth and make the triangle over commit. [James] Cody slides over. They over commit to Cody and had Hayward come up off the goal line because you get lost on that backside. James did a great job to recognize that [to feed Hayward]. Not too many guys are going to miss 24 square feet.”
“The discipline we showed with our hooks and tripping is not acceptable,” Geneseo coach Chris Schultz said. “We give them two five-on-three’s and you think they’re not going to tie game or win it? We did kill off a five-on-three and we did kill off some important penalties, which is good in the grand scheme of things.”
They nearly did not kill off that first five-on-three as Nick Panepinto thought he had scored a goal. However, the whistle had just blown as the referee lost sight of the puck. Shortly afterward, Marcus Farmer smacked the post.
While the teams were at full strength before the second five-on-three, Brockport hit a crossbar.
The Golden Eagles got the first lead of the game at 8:38 of the opening period. Brockport was doing a good job all period of pinning the Ice Knights in their own zone and this particular time, it resulted in Brendon Rothfuss picking up a loose puck at the right dot. He fired a wrist shot through Cory Gershon’s five-hole.
While the first period was mostly owned by Brockport, Geneseo came out and took over the second period, outshooting Brockport, 18-11. It was a period of mostly even strength hockey, but Geneseo did score a goal while a man up at 4:28.
Zachary Vit got credit for the goal as the puck sailed through players, causing Oliver Wren to lose sight of the puck.
“The longer we are able to play five-on-five against them, the better we off we’re going to be,” Schultz said. “There was a point we were up on shots 22-12 when it was all five-on-five. And then we get into penalty trouble and the shots get evened up.”
Before they got into penalty trouble, Geneseo tied the game on another power play 1:19 in the third. Vit fed Jonathan Redlick breaking down the middle. Redlick beat the last defender, deked Wren to open his legs, and casually slid it through the five-hole.
“We didn’t kill penalties that well tonight and gave two of their best players good looks and unfortunately, they finished,” Dickinson said.
Wren wound up with 38 saves.
“I think in the grand scheme of SUNYAC points, we’re disappointed in the tie,” Dickinson said. “But to be trailing 2-1 in the third and battle back and make things happen and get a point to at least keep us alive for a night, I was proud of the way we battled back and drew some penalties. It would have been easy to quit working late with a lot of near misses, quick whistles, but we didn’t do that and finally got that five-on-three to go.”
Brockport outshot Geneseo in overtime, 3-1, but no one could take home the win.
Gershon had 36 saves for Geneseo.
“We got good goaltending today,” Schultz said. “We got the big saves when we needed it, but we didn’t have the discipline.”
Both teams get the rest of the weekend off and then prepare to host Potsdam and Plattsburgh, with Brockport (3-8-2, 7-12-3 SUNYAC) getting the tougher team first as Geneseo (5-7-1, 11-10-1) takes on Potsdam next Friday.
