Gritty wins haven’t been easy to come by this season for the Falcons.
But on Saturday night they gritted their way to a big 6-4 non-conference win over the 12th ranked St. Lawrence Saints to close out the first half of their season at the BG Ice Arena.
After out-shooting Clarkson the night before in a 6-4 loss that saw numerous chances squandered by good goaltending, the Falcons were opportunistic and made sure the chances they got counted as they only managed 27 shots on the night to SLU’s 39.
Like the night before when the Falcons (5-11-1) grabbed a 3-0, they once again grabbed an early lead, 2-0, and saw the Saints (11-6-1) come back to tie the game just like Clarkson University Golden Knights had done on Friday.
However, in the end, instead of giving into the momentum shift, the Falcons got strong goaltending of their own and pulled out the win despite the Saints seeming to out-play them most of the night coming back on two different occasions.
Jon Horrell got the start for BG and came up with some big stops at key times as they struggled defensively giving up costly turnovers. He finished with 35 saves for the night.
“Jonnie Horrell was outstanding,” Falcon coach Scott Paluch said. “I think he won us the hockey game tonight.”
Horrell knew that he and his teammates had to play well going into Christmas as they couldn’t afford to get swept on the weekend.
“This means everything,” he said. “Taking a win like that over a highly ranked opponent into the break is so big for us. If we’d of come out and played tentative and maybe not done well then we’d of had to stew about that for two weeks.”
Don Morrison made sure the Falcons would have good thoughts going into the break when he notched the game-winner at 14:24 of the third period to give BG a 5-4 lead.
His shot from the point found the right side of the net as SLU goaltender Justin Pesony appeared to be screened on the play with Mike Falk and Alex Foster picking up assists.
Falk started the scoring on the night for BG as he notched a goal on the Falcon’s first power-play of the game at 10:59 of the first period to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead.
Derek Whitmore then picked up his first of two goals with just 23 seconds remaining in the period to give the Falcons their early two goal cushion.
T.J. Trevelyan would single-handily strike back for the Saints when he notched his first two goals of the night in the first 6:52 of the second to tie the game at 2-2. Trevelyan would later score a short-handed goal to record his third career hat-trick.
SLU appeared to grab the momentum just as Clarkson had done the night before, but it wouldn’t stick with them for too long.
“I kind of hoped that [the momentum was shifting], but then we had that breakdown,” Saints coach Joe Marsh said. “Momentum is a funny thing. It’s real, make no mistake about it, but sometimes the momentum shifts don’t always have to be cataclysmic.”
For Marsh and his Saints, this would prove true as the Falcons struck back 3 minutes later as Brandon Svendson tapped in his fourth goal of the season to give BG a 3-2 lead before Jonathan Matsumoto found the net just 1:01 later.
Matsumoto took a blue-line to blue-line pass and fired a shot into the upper right corner of the net to give BG another two-goal lead.
Svendson’s goal was all the more impressive as the night before he was carted off the ice after a collision with the goalpost and then the boards.
He was released from the hospital around midnight after having precautionary measures taken as the injury involved the head.
“It was a huge goal,” Paluch said of the third goal. “It’s a great sidebar that Brandon gets it based on what a serious situation it was last night.”
