Butler Toronadoes

CORAOPOLIS - When you are a first year coach for a hockey program, it is a long season when you go winless for the first 15 or 16 games. For Carrick’s Chris Chuisiano and Knoch’s John Nicholas, this 2002-2003 campaign has to be even more strenuous since both teams have had trouble competing and have been on the back end of some blowouts that were in the teens and some have reached twenty. So for both coaches Carrick vs Knoch was the ‘Game of the Year’ and an opportunity to put some light on a dismal season. The teams traded goals in the first period as Knoch’s Zach Neubert scored on the breakway at 13:27 and Carrick’s T.J. Gault scored on a wrist shot at 2:35 to keep the score at 1-1 after one. In the second period, after Knoch killed a 5 on 3 disadvantage, Carrick senior Ryan Sullivan made it a Senior Night to remember as he buried a rebound past Knight netminder Joey Zacherl with 6:56 remaining to give the Cougars a 2-1 lead going to the third. Knoch wanted this game so badly that Neubert and fellow Senior Phil Jancosko never left the ice in the third period. An extraordinary feat as the Knight seniors vowed to lead their team to its first victory. While killing a penalty, it was Jancosko, who stole the puck from the Carrick defense and raced in one the breakaway and beat Justin Ritz on the forehand with 12:47 remaining to tie the game at 2-2. Then at 9:58, it was Neubert, who made a nice move and beat Ritz to give Knoch a 3-2 lead with 9:58 remaining. Knight first year goaltender Zacherl shut the door on Carrick and Jancosko add an empty netter with :01 left and Knoch captured its first win which brought a big smile from coach Nicholas.