Late-Game Power Surge Captures A Crucial Point
Nov. 9, 2004
In hockey, a tie game is a difficult result to define. Some feel worse than a loss. Others feel like wins. On Saturday night, against a big, quick and disciplined Holy Cross squad, the never-say-die Gulls capitalized on a last-second goal by senior Ken Dargon to walk away with a 4-4 tie that felt as sweet as any victory, and garnered Endicott an important point in the NECHA standings.
Hoping to ride the emotional boost provided by a big 4-1 win the night before over MIT, the Gulls got stalled coming out of the gate, as a power outage at the Pingree School delayed the game for 20 minutes. Once electricity was restored and the game got under way, it was clear that Gulls would have their hands full against the talented Crusaders. The Holy Cross attack was persistent and precise, and only several point-blank stops by junior netminder Jeff Pardue kept the Crusaders off the board. However, it was Endicott that scored first. With just over five minutes gone, the Gulls hemmed the Crusaders in their own end with relentless forechecking. Senior assistant captain Joe Dudek got the puck behind the net, and slipped a quick pass to line mate Mike Manfredi, who roofed it over the shoulder of Holy Cross goalie John Speer for a 1-0 Endicott lead.
The Crusaders knotted the game with less than seven minutes remaining, as sophomore Chris Heimers finished off a nice two-on-one break, taking a pass from Brendan Murphy and sliding it underneath a hustling Pardue. Five minutes later, the Crusaders struck again, taking advantage of a Gull miscue off the boards in the Endicott end. Pardue stopped Justin Martin cold at the doorstep, but Kevin Connelly was able to collect the rebound and stuffed it past the Endicott goalie. Holy Cross nearly grabbed a two-goal lead going into intermission, but was denied by a dazzling save by Pardue in close.
That save seemed to wake up the Gulls, who opened the second period with a stretch of solid pressure. However, Speer and the Crusader defense were up to the test. Pardue was performing acrobatics in the Endicott net, stopping a shorthanded breakaway bid, and several one- and two-man Holy Cross power play opportunities. The Crusaders finally broke through on a huge individual effort by Nick Pizzone, who sprinted around Endicott's Mark Vaughan and Mike Ripley before barreling into the slot and rifling the puck between Pardue's legs for a 3-1 Crusader lead. Then, with just over two minutes left in the middle stanza, and the Gulls on a 5-on-3 power play, captain Adam Pardaledis got a crucial goal when he tipped a one-time shot from Ripley past Speer. Freshman Jeff Lallier got the second assist, and the Gulls came into the final period only a goal down.
In the third period, the Crusaders regained their two-goal margin on another defensive breakdown in the Endicott end, when junior Joe Mantovani was allowed to glide through the slot unguarded. Mantovani took a soft pass and ripped a shot along the ice and into the back of the net for a 4-2 Holy Cross lead. Refusing to quit, the Gulls again took the play to the Crusaders, and the effort paid dividends when Mark Vaughan gathered a pass from Manfredi and cracked a shot on Speer, who made the initial stop. Vaughan whacked at the rebound, and the puck found a crease in Speer's armor and squeezed over the goal line to bring the Gulls within one. Then, with less than a minute to go, after Holy Cross had killed off a late-game penalty, Pardue came charging off the ice for an extra attacker - Kenny Dargon. As the clock ticked under 10 seconds, and the Endicott net unguarded, freshman Chris Garofalo steamrolled into the Holy Cross zone. With a Crusader defenseman tying him up, Garofalo managed to shovel the puck over to Dargon, who slammed it home for the game-tying goal with less than seven seconds left.
During the five-minute, sudden-death overtime, the stunned Crusaders got the best chance to win the game outright, but a point blank shot that sailed over a diving Pardue struck the crossbar and deflected harmlessly away. Ripley had one last-second bid for the win, but a courageous play by a sliding Crusader forward blocked Ripley's bid from the left point, and the game ended deadlocked. Judging from the crestfallen faces of the Crusaders, however, it was hard to imagine that they hadn't lost. And the jubilant Gulls had the unmistakable look of winners.
The Gulls take their undefeated record (6-0-1) on the road on Wednesday (Nov. 10) against Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater. The next home game for Endicott comes on Saturday, Nov. 13, against another of the league's top teams, Bryant College, at the Pingree School in Hamilton. Game time is 7 p.m.