Late Belchertown Goal Drops Drury Icers
AMHERST, Mass. -- Belchertown's Francis Henderson scored a breakaway power-play goal in the final minute of regulation to give the Orioles a 6-5 win over Drury on Sunday at the Mullens Center.
Henderson's goal completed his hat trick and ruined a comeback effort for the Blue Devils, who overcame a 5-1 first-period deficit in slipping to 4-5 on the season.
"It's just mistakes," Drury coach Derek Durocher said. "A game like that, it comes down to who makes fewer mistakes. And we made one too many tonight.
"The penalty [with 2:16 left in the third) in itself wasn't the issue. When I talk about mistakes, I talk about turnovers in bad spots on the ice. And we made a couple of them where we could have sent the puck 200 feet from our goal, and we missed opportunities to do that."
The game-winning goal came off a turnover in Drury's offensive zone when it looked like the Blue Devils might be able to get a good short-handed opportunity.
Instead, Belchertown's Andrew Fijal stole the puck along the right wing boards and fed Henderson, who raced through the neutral zone and across the blue line before firing a shot past Chase Vander-Woude (32 saves).
"He battles," Durocher said of his net-minder. "Even the other night [against Mount Everett], he didn't see a lot of shots, but he fought off the ones he did. He's become a leader back there. He's helping out with the defensive zone play. He's vocal. And he makes a lot of saves.
"Goaltending is not our issue, and never has been, actually."
The Orioles (4-5-1) jumped on top early with three goals in the first 8 minutes, 10 seconds, the second two from Henderson with assists from Ryan Fernandes.
Owen Taylor set up David Delisle to get Drury on the board with 4:46 left in the period, but Belchertown scored twice in the last minute of the period to go to first intermission with a four-goal cushion.
The Orioles took their first penalty early in the second, and Zack Lillie made them pay with a goal assisted by Owen Taylor to make it 5-2.
Four minutes later, Branden Lincoln took a pass from Tyler Pettit in the neutral zone and skated into the high slot before firing a shot past Tim Mitus (23 saves) to make it a two-goal game.
With 4:34 left in the second, the Orioles were assessed a five-minute major penalty to erase their power-play chance. Another Belchertown penalty a minute later gave Drury a 4-on-3 opportunity, and Cam Taylor scored with an assist from Collin Booth to make it 5-4.
In the final minute of the period, with Belchertown still serving the major, Lincoln ripped a shot from the blue line that found the back of the net and tied the game, 5-5.
"We dug ourselves quite a bit of a hole in the first period," Durocher said. "We have been off the ice since [Wednesday], and we came out flat. It took us a while to find our legs.
"We did that. And they clawed back and really played a strong second period and much of the third, really"
Belchertown took another penalty with no time left in the second, giving Drury a 5-on-3 advantage for 26 seconds to start the third period and another 1:34 on the man advantage after that.
But Belchertown and Mitus were up to the challenge and kept it a tie game.
"Missed opportunity there," Durocher said. "We just didn't capitalize on that. I think if we capitalize on that, it doesn't dictate the game, there's still a lot of hockey left. But there's another opportunity that we didn't get.
"You add all these up, and to fall one short ... I know they're terribly frustrated with that one. Listen, we lost a game by a goal, and we have to learn from these experiences. If you can't win, you have to use the learning opportunity."
Drury is home on Wednesday against Chicopee Comp.