Freeport Yellow Jackets

CANONSBURG - *****Game Summary provided exclusively to PA Hockey by Canon-McMillan Hockey***** Canon-McMillan fought off a heroic charge by Greater Latrobe on Monday night to post a 10-5 victory. The win improved Canon Mac's record to 5-0, while Greater Latrobe fell to 1-5 on the young season. It appeared the Big Macs would run away with an easy victory by the mid-point of the first period. They had jumped to a 3-0 lead on a goal by Justin Cormack and two by Doug Stanton, the second of which was short-handed. Moreover, the Ice Cats had yet to post a shot on goal. But the Greater Latrobe silence would be broken a short time later when Eric Gondosh would find Matt Walker alone in the slot, and Walker buried a wrist shot to shrink the lead to 3-1. Canon-McMillan's Eric Lang would answer that goal with a slap shot past Justin Fontaine to restore the 3-goal lead with 3:24 to play. Jason Hendrick replaced Fontaine between the pipes after the goal, and Greater Latrobe would begin building some momentum from there. They finished the period strong, but still trailed by 3 goals. That would change quickly in the second period, as goals by RJ Williams and Walker cut the CM lead to 4-3. Jesse Patnesky gave Canon Mac a little breathing room again with a short-handed goal, but the Ice Cats responded with a short-hander of their own by Matt Mesaros. David Farah deadlocked the score at 5 with a power play goal at 7:35. A combined 10 goals had been scored in the game, and it was still only at the halfway point. The scoring calmed for a bit, but Stanton put CM back in to the lead by completing the hat trick with 4 minutes left in the 2nd period. The Big Macs certainly weren't comfortable with a 1-goal lead in this shootout, and continued pressure resulted in a goal by Kyle Harnen with 1:59 left in the period. Harnen's goal was short-handed, the 3rd SHG on the night for Canon-McMillan. Cormack notched his 2nd goal of the night just 36 seconds in to the final period of play. Both teams knew another 3-goal lead was far from secure, so the action only intensified over the next 7 minutes. The upset bid by Greater Latrobe suffered a fatal blow at the 7:21 mark when freshman Erik McKown put the Big Macs ahead, 9-5. The Ice Cats continued to press in hopes of battling back again, but a breakaway goal by Patnesky at 5:15 finished the scoring on the night, giving him 5 points in the game. Stanton would post his 3rd assist of the game on the goal, giving him an astounding 6-point night. Cormack added the other assist, his 4th point of the game. Sophomore goaltender Michael O'Neill tallied his first career Varsity win for the Big Macs, who now get 12 days off before traveling to face Hampton on December 5th. Greater Latrobe drives east next Monday to meet divisional foe Somerset.