Greenfield Edges Drury Icers in OT

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – A back-and-forth season opener ended with the Drury hockey team on the wrong side of the scoreboard Wednesday night.

 

But there was a lot that went right for the Blue Devils, even in a 5-4 overtime loss to Greenfield.

 

The best thing of all is the fact that Drury was back on the ice after a year and a half.

 

“We’re young, for one, and we have several kids who didn’t have hockey last year,” Drury coach Derek Durocher said. “Right now, it’s very disappointing to come out on the wrong side of that one. But what can’t get lost in all of this is we’re really thrilled to be back.

 

“And we like our team. We like our team a lot. I think we’ll get better as it goes on. We’re still catching up a little bit.”

 

On Wednesday at Peter W. Foote Memorial Rink, Drury caught up after trailing by scores of 2-1 and 3-2 in a back-and-forth game.

 

But Greenfield scored the game’s final two goals: a Shane Prusak tally with 47 seconds left in regulation and the Greenfield goal empty and M.J. Paulin’s game-winner 48 seconds into OT.

 

Drury scored the first goal of the night way back in the second minute of play. Branden Lincoln set up David Delisle to make it 1-0, Blue Devils.

 

The Green Wave tied it seven minutes later and scored in the first minute of the second period to take a 2-1 lead.

 

That was the only scoring in the second period, and Drury went to the second intermission with a one-goal deficit.

 

The best was yet to come.

 

“We got better every period,” Durocher said. “We battled, and it didn’t get easy for us. That was our first game. We’ve been on the ice for three weeks, and that was a very different atmosphere than practice every day. They responded as the game went along.

 

“We have a lot of skilled guys. What we didn’t do well in, say, the first half of the game was the tactical parts. We talked about that in between periods and pointed out some areas for improvement, and they responded to that. … They stuck with it. We could have packed it in, and they kept going.”

 

Lincoln scored with an assist from Zack Lillie off an offensive zone faceoff win in the first minute of the third period to tie it.

 

Greenfield responded with a power play goal midway through the period to take a 3-2 lead.

 

With 5 minutes, 3 seconds on the clock, Cam Taylor scored a power play goal with an assist from DeLisle to tie it, 3-3.

 

And with 1:50 remaining in regulation, Lillie scored on a breakaway with an assist from Taylor to give the Blue Devils a 4-3 edge.

 

Greenfield pulled keeper Joshua Bordeaux (11 saves) with 1:23 on the clock. Drury’s Chase Vander-Woulde made a couple of stops against the 6-on-5 attack before Prusak was able to slip in the tying goal with 47 seconds left.

 

The Green Wave was not able to get much past Vander-Woude, who made 27 saves, including 21 in the first two periods when Drury was struggling to get much going offensively at the other end of the ice.

 

“He gave us a chance, and that’s all you can ask of your goaltender,” Durocher said. “It’s unfair to ask them to win every hockey game for your team, but he gave us a chance. He did everything he was supposed to do. He was great today. Very proud of him.”

 

Drury (0-1) goes to Southwick on New Year’s Day.

 

Photos from this game here.