We played a wild one down in Saratoga the other day and fortunately our guys hung in there and pulled out the W in the 2nd overtime. As Hugh reported during the game, it was back and forth the whole way with 5 ties, 4 lead changes, and neither team able to build more than a 2 goal lead thanks to some excellent goaltending by both teams.

The two guys who stood out for us were Andrew “AC” Conner who finished with 5 goals on the day and Ryan Deane between the pipes who had 18 saves by my count. AC now has 8 goals in the last two games and is turning into a legitimate go to guy on the offensive end of the field. He’s always been able to shoot the ball hard right handed and now has the confidence to come out of a dodge lefty and let it rip. Ryan continues to show why I believe he’s the best goalie in the conference, he’s outletting the ball beautifully and is making game changing saves every time he steps on the field. The biggest play of the game for us came after the Skidmore goalie stuffed David Hild in the first overtime and the ball quickly went the other way for a Skidmore fast break. The ball ended up in the hands of Skidmore’s best shooter who has an absolute cannon (think Adam Pascal, Holt Hopkins type shot) at about 12 yards with time and room. The kid stepped in and tried to roof it over Ryan’s head and Ryan not only saved the ball but caught the shot. Unfortunately we weren’t able to turn the ensuing fast break into a goal either!

The game winner came off of a dodge from up top by Alex Englert who has started to get more runs on the offensive end of the field for us lately. Alex drew the slide, dropped the ball into the high crease to Tim Cahill who then dropped it down again to Mike Giordano who was sneaking on the pipe right handed.

It was a great road win for our team against a regionally ranked opponent by the NCAA which is a nice thing to have under our belt this time of year. Next up is another regionally ranked team in Trinity whose only loss so far this year was their last game out against Tufts this past weekend. After watching some film on the Bantams it looks like the new staff is allowing them to get out and run a bit this year so it should be an exciting game down in Hartford this weekend. Hopefully we’ll see some of you guys down there!

Yeah Blue!