The ending came in the blink of an eye. Devin Espana’s shot off a left circle faceoff exactly halfway through overtime gave The Hun School a come-from-behind 3-2 win over La Salle Wednesday afternoon in an APAC matchup at Hatfield Ice.
The goal came just seven seconds after La Salle’s William Podulka was swept to the penalty box for roughing, giving the Raiders a four-skaters-to-three advantage for the finish.
The Raiders overcame a 2-0 second-period deficit to lift their record to 10-4 overall and 2-1 in the APAC. They’ve won seven of their last eight starts. But it took them the entirety of the first two periods to get their skates under them.
“We’ve got to find a way to decide We’ve want to play from the first drop of the puck,” said Hun School coach Nathaniel Welsh. “But when they decide they want to turn it on, it’s a good hockey team.”
The Explorers (3-11, 0-5) took a 1-0 lead 4:50 into green second frame when Andrew Frantz delivered a power-play goal on a shot from the left point. River Carangi made it 2-0 with 7:04 left in the period on a setup from Nick Mantellino on a play that built up from behind the Hun School net.
At that point, the Explorers seemed to have the upper hand. But the Zachary Vallee scored for the Raiders off a La Salle breakdown with 1.9 seconds left in the period and the complexion of the game changed at that point; following the break for the post-second period ice cut Hun School returned for the third period riding a fresh wave of energy.
“It really feel like can beat anybody,” said veteran defenseman Andrew Darst, “and the key right now is figuring out how to get a good start on the road. Coming off the bus after an hour-long bus ride. Just getting a good start and getting ahead in the beginning.”
In a very real sense, the start of the third frame was a new beginning for the Raiders. Zachary Vallee tied the game with 4:19 left in the regulation to set the stage for the finale.
“Our first two operations weren’t great,” Welsh said. “Getting off the bus ride we weren’t really ready to play, but in the third period, we hit our stride a little bit.”
The Explorers seemingly had the better of things at the start of the extra period but Podulka’s penalty set up the visitors with an offensive zone faceoff and the Raiders took advantage of what La Salle coach Wally Muehlbronner indicated was one in a series of critical errors.
“It’s definitely a disappointing loss,” he said. “We lost that game the way I look at it. All three goals directly resulted from us not doing something or doing something we shouldn’t have done.
“The penalty {that set up the winning goal} was not a smart penalty. And we didn’t pick up on the backcheck on the other two goals.”
Hun School 0 1 1 1—3
La Salle 0 2 0 0—2
Second-period goals: Andrew Frantz (L) from Liam Greenwalt and Nick Mantellino,4:50 (pp); River Carangi (L) from Mantellino, 9:56; Jimmy Dolan (HS) from Devin Espana, 16:59
Third-period goal: Zachary Vallee (HS) from Jacoby Kelly-LePage and Luca Jean, 12;41
Overtime goal: Espana (HS) from Andrew Darst and Vallee, 2:30 (pp)
Shots: Hun School 25, La Salle 28; Saves: Elliot Trottier (HS) 23, Daniel Trainor (L) 22
Hockey Happenings 