By: Zachary Harnischfeger
Portside huddling up before the game (Photo Credit: Zachary Harnischfeger)
The Portside Royals entered the game looking to feed off of their dominant 7-1 win over Brighton/HFL on Tuesday night. The Penfield Patriots had other ideas and used a fast start to blow out the Royals by a score of 7-2.
"We didn't play a clean game," Portside Royals head coach William McGrath said. "We lost our composure. We had an off night. That is a good team and they were on. We just couldn't get our wheels going. We are going to take it and learn from it and build from it and we will come back."
The Patriots got off to a hot start. At the 11:47 mark in the first period, forward Sean Walsh scored a goal off a turnover by Royal Samuel Schultz to give the Patriots a 1-0 lead. Later in the first period, at the 4:48 mark forward Bobby Kane added to the Patriots' lead, scoring on a rebound from the pad of goalie Danny Kucmerowski, making it a 2-0 game.
The Royals were unable to get anything going offensively in the first period scoring zero goals on 13 shots.
The second period started with Penfield controlling most of the possessions and they continued to give the Royals a hard time with their forecheck. At the 7:39 mark in the second period, Angelo Latore netted a goal after a beautiful pass from Walsh to make it a 3-0 game.
Later in the period, with 1:06 left to play, Walsh added his second goal of the game to make it 4-0 Patriots. With 9.4 seconds left to play in the second period, forward Sal Balbi got the Royals on the board with a goal to cut the deficit to 4-1. The Royals were outshot 28-6 in the second period.
Sal Balbi celebrating with teammates after scoring a goal (Photo Credit: Zachary Harnischfeger)
"I knew it was close to the end of the period," Balbi said. "I was just trying to get a shot off and use my quickness and try and get around the defense. I looked short side and he was covering it, then I looked far side, saw it was open then I shot and scored."
The Patriots continued the onslaught in the third period. At the 13:01 mark in the third period, Ethan Murowski netted a goal to extend the lead to 5-1. Later in the period, with 3:15 left to play, Walsh earned the hat trick scoring his third goal of the game, making it 6-1.
At the 2:47 mark in the third period, Portside defensemen Tyler Archibald scored his first varsity goal to cut the deficit to 6-2. This is the last goal the Royals would score in the game. Penfield forward Mason Maksymiu added a goal with five seconds left in the game to make it 7-2. This would be the final score.
"When Archibald got his chance, he got out there and put the puck on net and it went in," McGrath said. "Our goal this year as a coaching staff is to make sure that every kid on this team scores a goal and feels that success and builds from it."
With the loss, Portside drops to 10-4-1 on the season. The Royals will be back in action on Tuesday evening when they travel to Hilton to take on the Cadets at 4:45 p.m.