Story posted Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Penalty Shot Save Seals Maine Victory
By STEPHEN GORDON Correspondent
There was not much energy on the ice Saturday night at Ballard Ice Arena in Niles. Niles Notre Dame had just completed finals and had not been on the ice in over six days. In addition, Dons assistant coach Tim O'Connor had to run the team while first-year coach Claude Desgagne was home suffering from food poisoning.
"Yeah, I am not too good at this coaching thing," O'Connor said after his team's 2-1 loss at the hands of Maine Township. "I am now 0-5 as a head coach while Claude is gone."
Maine was not too far behind as they had several players missing due to vacation and did not show the type of emotion usually shown by the Maineiacs, a team currently under the .500 mark.
But the Maineiacs gave their coach Steve Glickman an early Christmas present by showing they could come back from a deficit and move the puck up ice and clear their own zone with relative ease most of the night.
The Dons did take an 1-0 lead with 5:59 left in the first period when forward Alex Murphy scored an un-assisted goal after grabbing control of a loose puck in the neutral zone and skating into the Maineiacs zone, through two defensemen and beating goaltender Ben Wade (30 saves) with a wrist shot just over the glove hand of Wade.
The Dons did, however, take seven minor penalties on the night to just six called on the Maineiacs. One of those penalties called on the Dons however, did result in a power play goal for Maine Township scored by Ethan Slopecki with 16:25 left in the middle period to knot the score at 1-1. If the time looked funny to those Maineiac fans in the stands, it was a little tiring to the men in "black" who normally play 14-minute periods while in Metro Central play.
"We have had a tough season so far," Maineiacs goaltender Ben Wade said. "I think playing those extra three minutes, I think we really felt it towards the end of each of the periods. But we did just enough to get this win tonight."
Wade would have thought his 30 saves would have been enough to get the win. This, after JP Loerzel scored the go-ahead goal with 6:13 left in regulation time off a pass from Joe Galiotto making it 2-1.
However, a goalie's worst nightmare would take place with 3:18 left in the game when Dons forward Kyle Gronset was taken down while on a breakaway in the Maineiacs zone. Referee Rob Lowth awarded a penalty shot to Gronset and it looked certain the game would be tied at 2-2. But Wade would come up with the save and preserve the win.
"I think I played pretty well tonight," Wade said. "In practice, I usually do pretty badly at breakaways. But when he (Gronset) came in on me, he went to his right a little bit and I went with him and just guessed right."
Maine's momentum carried over into Sunday as the varsity squad defeated Conant, 3-2.
Matt Marcin scored first on an assist by Ethan Slopecki in the first period. After a scoreless second, Conant clawed back with 2 goals, which were answered by 2 more by Maine, one each by Joe Galiotto and John Rooney. Assisting were JP Loerzel, Jack Starzec and Rob Rogowski.
Nic Juister was in goal for the Maineiacs, notching 30 saves.
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