HOLYOKE – Ryan Fernandez couldn’t have picked a better moment to score his first career high school goal.
With the game knotted at 3-3 and less than a minute to go in the final period, Belchertown was buzzing in the offensive zone, looking to complete a wild comeback before regulation ended and with overtime looming. The Orioles fell behind 3-0 to the Eagles, but managed to claw their way back into the contest and had all the momentum going their way. Fernandez dangled past the Easthampton defense and put together a perfect play with Andrew Fijal with less than 20 seconds on the clock.
“I took it around, passed it to Fijal, then I rotated around behind the net. He passed it back to me, I passed it back to him – little give and go, back door, slaughtered it,” said Fernandez on his game-winning tally.
The team mobbed Fernandez after his goal with just 13 seconds remaining in the game, and his tally stood as the game winner to complete the 4-3 Wright Division comeback win for the Orioles, their third consecutive win. Goaltender Tim Mitus earned the win between the pipes, making 26 saves for the Orioles. Paige Galpin was heroic in net for the Eagles, making 36 stops, but wasn’t able to skate away with the W for her team.
“They were all over us. That [final] goal didn’t lose us the game, we didn’t capitalize enough,” Easthampton head coach Tim Pfau said on the last-second game winner. “I feel like we’re just not getting enough of those opportunities to be finished. It is frustrating, very frustrating and I feel terrible for (the team) too because they know it, too. They’re that close to scoring eight goals a game – they have it, we just don’t get it.”
The first period was fast-paced but scoreless for both sides. Easthampton (3-10, 2-5) had a chance to go up early with a power play with 7:23 left in the opening frame. Tyler Galpin took a seeing-eye shot from the point that clanged against the iron but stayed out, and though the Eagles had good chances, Ethan Marowitz took a hooking penalty 1:17 into the power play that put each team at four skaters a side. Both penalties were killed, and the teams went into the second period still looking to break the ice.
The first few minutes of the second period were all Easthampton. Captain Galpin skated in from the left point and sent a snipe past netminder Tim Mitus at 12:25 in the second, and just over a minute later, Marowitz slammed home a rebound after Mitus made a couple of phenomenal initial saves to put Easthampton up 2-0 with 11:21 remaining in the period.
The Eagles scored their third goal of the contest with 7:50 remaining off a harmless looking faceoff play that left everyone both on and off the ice a little surprised. Down 3-0, the Orioles had to start their comeback effort soon, or the Eagles were going to run away with the game.
That comeback effort started with Brady Moreau, who carried the puck up the left wing with ease and went high on Paige Galpin to get the Orioles on the board with 4:35 left in the second period. That was enough for Belchertown to bounce back and start working on closing the gap.
“Tonight we showed that strong mental ability to pick away at it one goal at a time,” Belchertown head coach Derek Chandonnet said. “I think once we got one… the fire got going. We just needed that one.”
Moreau struck again on his team’s second goal of the night after a monster shift, forcing a turnover and creating the offensive opportunity that he put away with 2:02 left in the third period.
“Brady’s been really coming on strong. He’s had a bunch of goals recently in the last few games and you know, he might go a game without a goal but he keeps just working hard and shooting,” Chandonnet said. “He’s a good teammate and one of the more underrated guys in Western Mass.”
Down just a goal heading into the final period, the Orioles (6-5-1, 6-1-1) came out of the second intermission like a team possessed, forechecking relentlessly and keeping Easthampton on its heels. The Eagles took an ill-timed cross-checking penalty with 6:23 remaining, and the Orioles pounced on the opportunity. Jack Mandeville scored off a pass from Moreau to tie the game up with 5:28 remaining before Fernandez scored the game winner just under five minutest later.