By Dave Diamond
Brian Ferrara was stunned.
"It's bittersweet, I guess," said Ferrara, captain of the Pride Ice Hockey club, trying describe the Pride's 5-4 overtime loss in a shootout Saturday night. Indeed it was, as the Pride played from behind all night and forced overtime after pulling goalie George Lorenz with under a minute to play.
Though the Pride's undefeated record in the Metropolitan Collegiate Hockey Conference (MCHC) is gone, it still has not lost in regulation time, and its performance against the first-place SUNY Albany Great Danes was a tribute to its strength in the conference.
While Albany supplied much of the early pressure, the Pride scored first. Just over six minutes into the game, sophomore Joe Balabous put the first tally on the board with a great individual effort coming around the net, across the near-side circle and in front of the net. Balabous was a key performer in the Pride's comeback.
Just over a minute after the Pride (6-0-0-1) took the lead, Lorenz robbed the Great Danes' Will O'Hara with a beautiful glove save off a slap shot headed for the top right corner of the net. Late in the first, Lorenz sprawled to make two saves on his side, stuffing Albany from point-blank range.
However, the Pride was not as fortunate in the second period. The bad news began when Pride senior Justin Patsey was hit in an awkward position and had to leave the game with an apparent shoulder injury. He returned later in the second period, but saw limited action for the rest of the night.
At 4:08, Albany (7-0-1-0) scored off a high slap shot handcuffed Lorenz and the rebound fell right on the stick of Albany senior Joshua Charland who buried it home to tie it at 1. A little over a minute later, the Great Danes' Brian LaBarbera connected with Colin Griffith to give Albany a 2-1 lead.
Trailing, 3-1, 14 minutes into the second, Pride junior Rob Gleckler was stuffed on three prime scoring chances in front of the net before senior Matt Orenstien, team leader in points, finally cut the lead in half, 3-2.
Both teams skated with purpose in the third period, and after one minute of play both teams had back-and-forth scoring chances setting up for what was a fabulous 20 minutes of hockey. Feeling the added pressure after Albany scored at 1:09 to give them a 4-2 cushion, the Pride responded brilliantly. Just 28 seconds later, Balabous struck again, the Pride bench new life.
At 6:31 of the third, Lorenz showcased his fast glove on a wrist shot from 15 feet bringing the crowd to a standing ovation. Just when it seemed this game had seen everything, chaos ensued.
At 15:09, struggling to find a tying goal and time running out, the Pride was hit with a questionable penalty for too many men on the ice. When the referee did not allow Pride co-head coach John Ferrara to plead his case, Ferrara threw a tantrum. After screaming non-stop for about 30 seconds, Ferrara was given a game misconduct and tossed from the bench.
"If your not going to call that all game, don't make that call in the last four minutes of the game," Ferrara said. "It just looked like he was looking for something to call at the end of the game, so that was the reason for my outburst."
Another reason for an outburst was to get his team energized for the rest of the game, and if that was the coach's intention, then the Pride made that decision look genius.
The Pride killed the penalty and constantly forced Albany out of its zone, now desperately looking for some offense. Co-head coach Ron Reif called a timeout with under two minutes left to play and pulled the goalie for an extra skater not long after.
The Pride set up with exactly one minute to go, when Joe Balabous again beat the Great Danes, this time with a pass from behind the net to junior Steve Wagner, who scored five-hole. The goal with 50 seconds left in the game forced the shootout, and guaranteed the Pride a well-earned point in the standings.
Brian Ferrara scored the only goal for the Pride in the shootout, and after Albany's third goal iced the game, Albany claimed the extra point in the standings and the win.
"The character of this team is unbelieveable," Ferrara said. "We can be down three goals and these guys still stay very positive, and that's a big part of this year."