Guilderland had a chance to make a statement win against one of the top teams in the Capital District High School Hockey League, but it slipped away.
Kevin Corbett scored midway through overtime to lift Division II-leading Queensbury to a 6-5 victory over the Dutchmen Saturday at Union College.
Collin Burg scored the tying goal with 16 seconds left in the third period for the Dutchmen (10-2 league, 10-8-1 overall), who rallied from a 4-2 deficit in the third period. But Corbett scored his only goal of the game at the 2:29 mark of overtime to win the game for the Spartans (7-2-1, 17-2-2).
The kids made a good accounting for themselves, said Guilderland coach John DeRubertis. `Hopefully, we’ll respond and play a good game of hockey against Shenendehowa Tuesday.`
The Dutchmen built a 2-0 lead on a pair of Aaron Cahill first period power play goals and had opportunities to put more points on the scoreboard, but Queensbury goaltender Patrick Murphy stopped several shots to keep the lead at two.
`I’m looking back at all the opportunities we had in the first period,` said DeRubertis. `We could have finished the game in the first period.`
Matt Soprano sparked a Queensbury rally with two goals in the second period. Taylor Vaughn and Ryan Wilson then tallied in the third period to give the Spartans a 4-2 advantage.
`It didn’t surprise me they came back. They can put the puck in the net,` DeRubertis said of Queensbury, which was coming off a 7-5 loss to Division I-leading Shen earlier in the week.
Guilderland answered with goals from Cahill and Greg Warnken, but Soprano struck again with his third goal of the game to put Queensbury in front 5-4. The lead held until Burg tallied as the Dutchmen skated with a 5-on-3 power play in the final minute.
Murphy had 22 saves for Queensbury, more than half coming in the first period. Brendan Glennon stopped 23 shots for Guilderland.
Following Tuesday’s game against Shen, the Dutchmen have only a handful of regular season games left, starting with a Thursday, Feb. 7, contest against Glens Falls. They then participate in this weekend’s Albany County Cup with Bethlehem, CBA and Shaker/Colonie.“