MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — Fredonia scored two short-handed goals Friday yet it wasn’t enough to keep the Blue Devils from falling to Morrisville State, 5-4, in SUNYAC men’s hockey.
Stephen Castriota (Bellport, N.Y.) and Jamie Young (Russell, Ohio) were credited with the short-handed goals. Marcus Andersson(Örnsköldsvik, Sweden) had a power-play goal and Marcus Ortiz(Richardson, Texas) scored even-strength for the Blue Devils, while goaltender Jeff Flagler (Owen Sound, Ont.) picked up a rare assist.
Matthew Beer and Jordan Carvalho had two goals each while Layne Martin netted the game winner for the Mustangs.
Fredonia fell to 0-6-3 in the conference and 4-9-5 overall. Morrsville is now 6-8-5 overall and 4-5-2 in the conference. The teams meet again Saturday night in Morrisville.
The see-saw battle saw the teams trade goals twice within seconds of each other. There were a total of five lead changes.
Beer opened the scoring at 13:26 of the first period. Castriota made it 1-1 with his eighth goal of the season and his second short-hander.
Fredonia took a shortlived 2-1 lead midway through the second period on a goal by Andersson, his third of the season. Nine seconds later, the Mustangs pulled even when Carvalho scored on a rebound.
Morrisville regained the lead on Beer’s second goal of the night early in the third period. The Mustang lead was also shortlived as Ortiz scored on a slapshot off a faceoff won by Frankie Hart (Timmins, Ont.). Ortiz’s goal, his fifth of the season, came 11 seconds after the goal by Beer.
Young’s short-hander — his second goal of the year — came at 8:13 of the third period on a breakaway. Carvalho answered at 12:02 before Martin broke a 4-4 tie and completed the scoring at 13:24.
In addition to scoring two short-handed goals, the Blue Devils were 6 of 6 on the penalty kill.
Flagler became the first Blue Devil goaltender to earn an assist since Jamie Kosecki during the 1999-2000 season.
