La Salle defeats shorthanded BHBS

Well, the Cadets needed that one. After their first loss of the season on Wednesday, in which they blew a 3-0 lead to fall 5-3 at Shen, La Salle bounced back with a strong showing in a 5-2 win over BHBS, who was without captain Nick Koszelak.

On Saturday, it was exactly the start La Salle wanted and exactly the start BHBS wanted to avoid. Just 27 seconds into the game, after a scrum in the corner, Jack O’Bryan found himself alone in the slot and buried a wrister to make it 1-0 Cadets. 32 seconds after that, Christian Rudd dumped a puck on net that somehow found its way through the legs of BHBS goalie Trevin Tidmarsh and into the net, making it 2-0 La Salle just 59 seconds into the game. After that minute, the Spartans were able to find their footing a little bit, and outshot La Salle 10-9 for the rest of the period, and got a goal back late when Geordan Buffoline beat Cadet goalie Kyle Rentz high blocker side.

BHBS continued their strong play into the second period, but after Evan Loveland took a tripping penalty, Kevin Mainello scored a powerplay goal to extend La Salle’s lead to 3-1. The Spartans had an answer with another Geordan Buffoline wrister in almost exactly the same spot as the first one, this one coming off a 3-on-2 rush, cutting the lead to 3-2 heading into the 3rd. Sam Swingruber also had a powerful slapshot that barely grazed the glove of Rentz with about 2 minutes to go in the period that would have tied the game.

The third period was played pretty evenly, with nobody really getting any terrific scoring chances. About halfway into the final frame, Ryan Murray pulled up and lifted a slapshot through Tidmarsh to extend the lead to 4-2 with 7 minutes remaining. About a minute later, Buffoline hit the post on a really good scoring opportunity. The Spartans couldn’t get anything else to drop, and Murray scored again, icing the game with an empty-netter with 1:30 left.

Cadet captain Logan DiScanio said after that game that “Last night was a great game for us, and it was a great way to respond after the tough loss we had against Shen. We learned that to be able to win every night in this league, you have to play all 45 minutes, because if you take even a minute off it could cost you the game. I thought everyone played well last night, and we kept moving the puck and limited our turnovers, so we think it was a good boost for our team for the rest of the season.”

La Salle moves back into first place in the league with the win, with 11 points. BHBS remains in 3rd place, with 9 points. La Salle will next face off against Saratoga on the road on Friday, while BHBS will travel down to face Queensbury, in a rematch of last week’s game, which BHBS won 4-1.

GOALS

1st period

(0:27) LSI: Jack O’Bryan (7) ASST: Christian Rudd (4), Logan DiScanio (21)

(0:59) LSI: Christian Rudd (5) ASST: Sebastian Geiger (4), Tom Ryan (15)

(12:23) BHBS: Geordan Buffoline (11) ASST: Evan Loveland (2)

2nd period

(9:42) LSI: Kevin Mainello (12) ASST: Jack O’Bryan (11), Sebastian Geiger (5)

(11:56) BHBS: Geordan Buffoline (12) ASST: Sam Swingruber (12), Alec Lind (14)

3rd period

(7:52) LSI: Ryan Murray (9) ASST: Jack O’Bryan (12)

(13:37) LSI: (EN) Ryan Murray (10) ASST: None

 

Goalie saves

LSI: Kyle Rentz 20/22, .909%

BHBS: Trevin Tidmarsh 28/32, .875%