Our squad battled all the way back from a 9-5 deficit with 13 minutes to go in the game to pull out an 11-10 win down in Hartford on Saturday.  On a day when we weren't shooting particularly well and were facing a hot goalie, our guys hung in there and took advantage of a lucky bounce to seize momentum and battle back.  The scene after the game resembled a home crowd with the amount of current family members along with alums and alumni parents on hand to witness the comeback.  It was a GREAT day to be a Panther!

After a low scoring first quarter, Trinity came out in the 2nd and scored five unanswered goals to take a 5-1 lead. Both goalies were hot early on which led to our guys tightening up a bit on offense. Finally, with 5 minutes to go in the 2nd, Jack Gould stuck a lefty shot on the run to cut the lead to 5-2.  Coming out of the break we peppered the Trinity goal and finally both Tim Giarrusso and Jack Gould scored to cut the lead to one at 5-4.   From there we proceeded to turn the ball over a few times in transition and Trinity made us pay by reeling off 3 straight to take an 8-4 lead late in the 3rd.    

Tim Giarrusso scored again with under 30 seconds left in the quarter and off the ensuing face off, Nick Peterson streaked downfield and ripped a shot to the low corner that bounced off the pipe (our 3rd or 4th of the day).  It was one of those days where the bounces just didn't seem to be going our way and Trinity was doing a good job of capitalizing on some breaks in their favor.  When they scored again to start the 4th and build the lead back up to four goals I said to Jack Reilly, we just need a little luck here at some point.  That's exactly what we got when a rolling ball in the Trinity crease was knocked into the goal by either their goalie or one of their defensemen, it was hard to tell when it happened or on film.  

From that point on we created our own bounces by coming up with some tough ground balls and scored our next goal off of a ride.  Tim Giarrusso scored two huge goals down the stretch along with a big time take by Henry Riehl who went through a few Trinity defenders on his way to the top of the crease.  Finally Kyle Soroka put us up 10-9 on another big time dodge against a pole back to the middle of the field, Kyle has also scored some of the bigger goals for us this season. 

Credit Trinity for taking advantage of some poor personnel decisions on our part at the end of the game to turn it over and score immediately in transition to tie it back up at 10.  At that point we once again created some chances with under a minute including a doorstep look with seconds to play that went just wide of the cage.

After both teams exchanged possessions to start OT, Henry Riehl found Tim Giarrusso cutting to the middle of the field and Tim buried it.  Including the own goal by Trinity, Tim finished with 6 goals and won the rare 2nd game ball in the same season.  He truly earned it for how he put the team on his back down the stretch and stuck some shots on a day when their goalie seemed to have an answer for whatever we threw at him (21 saves). 

Next up we are off to Waterville this weekend which is always a tough place to play.  The Colby team has been through a lot this year with the passing of head coach Jack Sandler.  They have had a tough season record wise but have been in almost every game and they play their tails off, they will be ready to go on Saturday.