KEENE, N.H. – It may not have been a win, but if the Keene State College men's ice hockey team is to turn their season around, one could point to Friday night's game as a possible catalyst as the Owls rallied from two different two-goal deficits and played to a 6-6 overtime tie with Middlebury College in non-conference action at Keene Ice.
Entering the night having dropped their first three games of the season, two by a goal including one in overtime, it seemed it might be a long evening for KSC (0-3-1) early when the Panthers (0-0-1) – receiving votes in the national USCHO poll and coming off an appearance in the NESCAC championship game last season – scored twice in 39 seconds to take a 2-0 lead less than eight minutes into the game and registered 13 of the first 14 shots on goal. But that was far from the case, as the Owls drew within a goal by the end of the first period on
Luke Festa's goal with 6:53 to go in the period.
Luc Malkhassian restored a two-goal advantage (3-1) for the visitors as the Owls were burned in the early stages of a period again, but KSC bombarded the Panthers after that, ripping off four unanswered goals in the period to surge in front by two.
Collin Patterson notched his second of the season 32 seconds after Malkhassian's tally to keep the Owls in it, and the home team surged in front by scoring twice in 27 seconds less than 10 minutes later.
Kyle Gonzalez tied it at three by rifling in a power play goal off a cross-ice feed by
Thor Hansen with 8:49 to go in the period.
Peter Unger than executed a perfect tip of a
Tyler Palin shot from just inside the blue line following a KSC faceoff win on the ensuing shift as the Owls took their first lead (4-3). The home team outshot Middlebury 18-13 in the period and scored four times, which alone would have marked a season-high in goals.
KSC seemed to pot a back-breaking goal with 30 seconds left in the second period to go up 5-3 after Hansen won the puck below the goal and fed
Zack Chouinard for his first of the season, but Middlebury answered in lightning quick fashion just 10 seconds later through a goal from Dimitri Tzaferis to avoid heading into the locker room with nearly nothing to feel good about.
Instead, with their first of two power play goals of the night just 3:33 into the third, the Panthers fought back to tie it at five as James Schneid picked a corner off a second consecutive primary assist for Edward Moskowicz.
The Owls jumped back in front with 12:56 left as
Michael Boschetto cleaned up the juicy rebound of
Payton Kender's blast from just inside the blue line near Middlebury's bench, marking the sixth different scorer of the night for injury-depleted KSC – with five recording their first goals of the season.
Penalty trouble bit the Owls badly in the third period, however, as Middlebury again tied it by capitalizing on a man-up chance as Malkhassian opened his season with a multi-goal effort to make it 6-6 with 7:16 to go in regulation. KSC took a modest four penalties on the night, but three came in the final 20 minutes as they attempted to nurse a pair of one-goal leads. Ten of the Panthers' 22 credited third period shots came on the power play. Owls goalie
Cameron Reardon made his first start of the season and made 20 stops in the period to help send KSC's second home game into overtime just like the first.
Middlebury's Andrew Heinze came up big when his team needed him, though, stopping five shots in the ensuing five minutes after his team tied it. Perhaps his most memorable stop came in the overtime, as he denied
Chase Carney a game-winner on a partial breakaway to keep his team alive. Not to be outdone, Reardon also came up big late, making a critical save on Malhassian's bid for a hat trick with two minutes to go in overtime. He also stopped three others in the extra session and finished with 47 saves. Heinze stopped 39.
Tzaferis and Malkhassian each paced Middlebury's offense with a pair of goals and an assist. The Panthers fell to Williams College 4-2 in their conference's championship game last March after winning their way there in overtime twice. The Panthers also went 1-0-1 against Division III national champion Hamilton College in the regular season.
KSC, meanwhile, has now scored nine goals in the last five periods plus an overtime after being blanked in five consecutive periods and an overtime.
Middlebury took the shootout 3-2, with Jackson Morehouse putting the Panthers ahead in the fifth round before Heinze denied Kender. It was the first shootout ever at Keene Ice and just the Owls' third in program history. They had won the previous two on the road, including most recently at the University of Massachusetts-Boston in February.
The Owls host Western Connecticut State University (2-1-1, 0-1-1 LEC) in a league Conference game tomorrow afternoon (Saturday, November 14) at 2:00 p.m. KSC swept the Wolves last season 5-4 in Keene and 4-2 in Danbury. WestConn tied the University of Southern Maine 4-4 (losing 1-0 in the shootout) and lost 4-0 at Babson College last weekend to open LEC play.
