Schnopp Backstops Taconic Icers to Win
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The Taconic goals from four different players and 23 saves from Mike Schnopp in a 4-1 win over St. Mary's on Wednesday night at the Boys and Girls Club.
But a night that should have been all about celebrating teamwork ended with a meltdown by both teams.
A fracas in St. Mary's defensive zone in the final minute led to seven penalties, off-ice officials settling down the fans and a premature end to the game.
"Unfortunately, it was an embarrasing situation, and hopefully we're all going to learn from it," Taconich coach Steve Terpak said. "Including our fans. I hope I our fans learn from it, too.
"That's not what we want. We're trying to be a class organization. We really work hard on the values of being good people, not just good hockey players ... and portray a class organization. Today, we displayed it up until the last 30 seconds.
"To everybody, my comment is I apologize, and we've learned something."
Taconic improved to 7-6-1 and ran its unbeaten streak to seven games but only after it surrendered the game's first goal midway through the first period.
Andrew Booth put back a rebound for St. Mary's 7 minutes, 43 seconds into the first period.
Taconic, which had trouble getting past the St. Mary's blue line much of the night, broke through for the equalizer late in the first. Harrison Rapant took the puck out from behind the goal and beat St. Mary's goalie Matt Brady on a wraparound to make it 1-1 going to the first intermission.
The second period was a defensive battle in which Taconic showed off its knack for blocking shots.
"We kind of learned from the early part of the season that one of the keys for us is not to give anybody time and space in our zone to either set up a play or take a clean shot," Terpak said. "So we have stick on puck all the time. We practice it like crazy for that exact reason. A clean shot has a pretty good chance of going in as opposed to something that's deflected."
And when the shots did get through, Schnopp was equal to the task.
"Our goalie had a great game again," Terpak said. "Our goalie is sharp now. That helps a lot when your goalie is sharp. It picks the team up, too."
Taconic went ahead with about three minutes left in the second when Steven Popriski scored off a breakaway up the left wing.
Midway through the third, Shane Tierney gave Taconic some insurance, and Brandan Peaslee capped the win with an empty net goal in the final minute.
Moments later, the game ended on a sour note.
"They learned a lesson today," Terpak. It happens quite often when a team is down 4-1 or 5-1 or something in the last minute of the game, they have nothing to lose. They're going to take runs at people.
"Our guys today, unfortunately, took the bait -- hook, line and sinker. So, we have to pay the penalty now and learn some lessons. Our guys are very, very smart. They're great students, and I love 'em. And they're going to learn from this."