From The Statesman
By Anthony DiCocco
After filling the net to open the weekend, the No. 18 Stony Brook hockey team failed to keep the puck out of its own cage to close the series as it was forced to settle for a split.
This past weekend, the Seawolves (8-7-2, 5-3-2 ACCHL) were at Pennsylvania’s Alpha Ice Complex for a two-game series with the No. 17 Pittsburgh Panthers (10-6-3, 4-2-1 ACCHL). On Saturday, Dec. 6, Stony Brook rode a second-period scoring flurry to a 6-3 win before dropping the series finale 8-5 on Sunday, Dec. 7.
Opening the two-game set, the Panthers jumped all over the Seawolves, but goaltender Steven Reganato was able to limit the damage. With 4:03 remaining on the clock, Pittsburgh center Conner Ralston broke the seal, but Reganato denied 17 shots in the first period to send his team into the first intermission in a minimal 1-0 hole.
With Reganato standing on his head, Stony Brook took over in the second period. Just 57 seconds in, center Will Kormanik deadlocked the score at one apiece.
At the 3:41 mark of the frame, winger Matt Anastasio followed the captain’s lead and beat Pittsburgh goaltender Samuel Coppola. Less than four minutes later, winger Justin Nakagawa buried his seventh tally of the season on an individual effort to extend the Seawolves’ advantage to 3-1.
Past the midway point of the middle stanza, defenseman Devon Mastay netted his first collegiate goal to cut the Panthers’ deficit in half to stop the bleeding.
However, Stony Brook slammed its foot back on the gas pedal by banking goals in bunches. With 3:54 remaining in the period, winger Kristian Malec beat Coppola to restore his team’s two-goal lead and 45 seconds later, winger Anthony Vernillo joined the party with the Seawolves’ fifth goal of the frame to chase Coppola from the crease.
Following a quiet start to the third period, center Josh Hrip snuck a shot past Reganato to pull Pittsburgh back within two goals with under nine minutes to play in the game. Nonetheless, winger Robert Hyde took a feed from Anastasio and made no mistake, as he beat goaltender Joe Ambroffi to ice the game at 6-3 with 4:45 left on the clock.
Despite the convincing win, Reganato was the difference maker for the Seawolves. Alongside his strong first period, the netminder turned aside 15 shots in the third to preserve Stony Brook’s lead. Overall, he stopped 41 shots in the victory.
The Seawolves were outshot 44-34 while going 0-for-2 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Anastasio and Vernillo led the way with a goal and an assist each, while center Lorenzo Marra picked up two helpers. Kormanik, Nakagawa, Malec and Hyde all lit the lamp. Defenseman Charles Poirier and Dylan Kowalsky added an apple apiece.
Mirroring the start to game one, the Panthers struck first on Sunday. Prior to the six-minute mark of the first period, winger Colby Bilski received a pass at the top of the left faceoff circle and picked the top right corner of the net to beat goaltender Heath Goldsmith for a power-play tally.
However, in a role reversal from the opener, the second period ended up being Stony Brook’s downfall in game two. Kormanik tied the game just 58 seconds in, as he banged home a rebound off of a defenseman Teddy Valenti slap shot.
Just 1:20 later, winger Paul DeSaro collected a pass from Poirier at the half wall and threw a backhander toward the net. Ambroffi turned the shot aside, but DeSaro followed his own rebound and converted on the second chance.
Pittsburgh knotted the game up 26 seconds later, as winger Santino Multari poked the puck free from Kowalsky at his own blue line and snuck a shot through Goldsmith’s wickets on a partial breakaway.
At the 4:20 mark of the middle stanza, Kormanik centered a feed from below to the goal line to DeSaro in the slot, who snapped a one-timer past Ambroffi to put Stony Brook back in front 3-2. However, the Seawolves lost their momentum soon after.
Two minutes later, Stony Brook’s defense got sloppy in front of its own net to set up the equalizer on a silver platter. With the puck bouncing off multiple defenders’ sticks, Pittsburgh winger Bryan Wojdelko corralled it and fired a shot past Goldsmith’s glove.
After miscommunication at the Seawolves’ bench resulted in a too-many-men penalty, the Panthers took the lead while a man up and never looked back. From the top of the right circle, winger Brady Rotolo threw a shot toward the net and with traffic in front, winger Derek Pietrzyk got a stick on it to redirect it past Goldsmith.
With 4:30 left in the second period, winger Edward Pazo stormed into the high slot and wristed a seemingly harmless shot Goldsmith’s way, who whiffed on it with his blocker to give the Panthers’ their fourth goal of the stanza.
Stony Brook turned to Reganato with hopes of energizing the team and although it showed some fight in the third period, Pittsburgh was too much for the Seawolves to handle.
The Panthers extended their lead to 6-3 with their fourth straight goal coming 17 seconds into the third period. From the half wall, Wojdelko sent a pass to winger Augie Ashley between the dots, who rifled a wrister past Reganato.
Just over a minute later, Stony Brook capitalized on a turnover within Pittsburgh’s blue line. Center Hudson DiNapoli tapped the puck past a defender to buy some space in the right circle, where he let a shot go that beat Ambroffi.
However, the Panthers came up with an answer 1:12 later. Off the rush, winger Drake Tomak centered a pass to center Cyrus Keeling that angled off his skate and off Reganato’s pad. The puck caromed right to Tomak at the side of the goal, who deposited the loose change with the net knocked off its moorings due to a collision initiated by Valenti.
Later in the period, Malec buried his second tally in as many days, but Ashley eventually erased the score with his second of the night to put the game out of reach at 8-5.
Stony Brook was outshot 34-27 in the game and struggled on special teams. Along with failing to capitalize on their lone man advantage, the Seawolves surrendered goals on each of their shorthanded disadvantages.
Goldsmith struggled in the blue paint, as he allowed five goals on 16 shots. Reganato fared slightly better, but he was not nearly as sharp as he was on Saturday, as he made 15 of 18 possible saves.
DeSaro led the team with two goals and two assists during the finale, while Kormanik added a goal and two helpers as his running mate. Malec and DiNapoli both picked up a goal and an apple.
Defenseman Kyle Nestepny, Anastasio, Valenti and Poirier each recorded an assist.
With Atlantic Coast Conference Hockey League action in their rearview mirror for now, the Seawolves will return home to The Rinx on Saturday, Dec. 13 to square off against the Farmingdale Rams for their final game of the calendar year. The Rams are an American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II squad and are 13-5-1 this season. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
(Originally published at https://sbstatesman.com/141523/sports/no-18-stony-brook-hockey-splits-seesaw-series-with-no-17-pittsburgh/)
