PLATTSBURGH, NY -- Plattsburgh State's (11-5-1) Luke Baleshta scored with twenty seconds remaining in overtime to complete a 5-4 comeback win over the Williams Men's Hockey team (8-3-1) on Saturday night.
The Ephs entered the third period with a commanding 4-1 lead after three goals in the second frame, but three Cardinal goals in the final period, including two scores in the last five minutes of regulation, sent the game to overtime. With twenty seconds left in the game, Cardinal defenseman Connor Gorman found Baleshta in front of the net on the left side, who tapped it in for the game-winner.
"They were just beating us in scrambles in front of the net in the third period, and that was probably the first team that's done that to us," said head coach Bill Kangas after the game. "We competed pretty hard in the third, but I thought that was probably the best third period of hockey anybody's played against us."
Despite the Cardinals' furious comeback, the first two periods featured a strong effort from the Ephs, who held their own in the early stages against a 10th-ranked Plattsburgh State team that notched a convincing 7-1 win over Middlebury College on Friday night.
The Williams offense opened the scoring just nine and a half minutes into the first period on a 3-on-2 rush into the offensive zone. Forward John Wickman '13 set up the chance by carrying the puck into the zone and making a sharp cross-ice pass to Nick Anderson '14 near the right faceoff circle. Anderson corralled the puck and let loose a hard wrist shot that snuck past the glove of Mathieu Cadieux and into the net, giving Williams an early 1-0 advantage.
Plattsburgh State came out strong to start the second period, using their strong power play unit to capitalize on an Eph penalty and even the score at 1-1 just seven and a half minutes into the frame. Scoring for the Cardinals was defenseman Preston Kaye, who took a pass from forward Connor Gorman and unleashed a slap shot from the center of the blue line that sailed past a screen and into the net.
The rest of the second period, though, was all Ephs. Less than a minute after Kaye's equalizer, defenseman Zander Masucci '16 fired a hard slap shot of his own from the top of the Williams offensive zone. The shot appeared to be sailing wide, but Nick Anderson got his stick on the puck and deflected it past Cadiuex for his second goal of the night to put the Ephs up 2-1.
The Eph attack built on this momentum to add another score just fifty seconds after Anderson's goal. Co-captain Mark Lyons '13 picked off a stray Cardinal pass in the Eph offensive zone and found Evan Dugdale '13, who tapped it to a wide-open Peter Mistretta '15 in front of the net. Mistretta made the most of the opportunity, making a nifty move to his backhand and flipping the puck in on the right side to extend the Williams lead to 3-1.
The Ephs would add yet another goal before the period was over after a Cardinal penalty put them on the man-advantage with under three minutes remaining in the second. Just thirty seconds into the power play, Dugdale found forward Eric Rubino '13 in the left corner of the offensive zone. Rubino threaded a nice pass to forward Matt Doyle '14 in front of the net, and Doyle tapped the puck in on the left side to give Williams what appeared to be comfortable 4-1 advantage after two periods of action.
Less than two minutes into the third period, though, it became clear that Plattsburgh State would not go away quietly. Forward Kevin Emmerling started the Cardinal comeback by pouncing on a loose puck and firing a wrist shot past Eph goaltender Sean Dougherty '15 from the left circle to cut the lead to 4-2.
The Ephs buckled down on defense for the next thirteen minutes, but the Cardinals struck once again with five minutes remaining after head coach Bob Emery made a gutsy call to pull his goaltender. Capitalizing on the man-advantage was forward Barry Roytman, who chipped in a rebound attempt to bring the score to 4-3.
Just a minute and a half later, Emmerling knotted the score at 4-4 on his second goal of the period with another rebound goal near the right side of the goal mouth to send the game into overtime.
The Ephs fought hard to stave off the Plattsburgh attack and try to earn the tie, but Baleshta's goal with twenty seconds remaining allowed the Cardinals to escape with the victory.
Despite the heartbreaking final result, the Ephs got a strong effort in net from Dougherty, who withstood the Cardinal barrage to make 37 saves on 42 shots in 65 minutes of play. Plattsburgh State goaltender Matthew Cadieux notched 9 saves on 13 Eph shots in the first two periods before giving way to backup Sam Foley, who made 7 key saves in the third period and overtime.
Forwards Nick Anderson and Evan Dugdale both had solid games for the Ephs offensively, as Anderson tallied two goals while Dugdale added a pair of assists.
The Ephs will have to put this loss behind them quickly, as they travel to Wellesley, MA on Tuesday to face a formidable opponent in Babson College (9-3-2).
"We have a tough group of guys," added Kangas. "We're obviously going to reflect on this; it stings a little bit right now, but in the end it's going to make us a better hockey team."
