Sachem Hockey Drops Lead, Ties St. Anthony's

Everything was going right for Sachem Wednesday night at The Rinx. The Arrows had dominated St. Anthony's for nearly the entire game, but never really put them away for good.

A blown 5-2 lead in the third period led to a 5-5 tie, thus ending their three-game win streak.

Coach Tom Krammer attributed a lack of defensive responsibility for the third period breakdown, something that the Arrows had done so well during their win streak.

"We stopped getting back [to our zone]," Krammer said. "Our forwards didn't get back, our defensemen weren't physical, and didn't show any sense of urgency. We didn't play well defensively at all. We just stopped skating."

Sachem (6-4-1) went into the contest short-handed, with four players out of the lineup. Forwards Rob Donnelly and Chris Chizzoniti were out with injuries, with Chizzoniti still suffering from a knee-on-knee hit from Sachem's last game with Middle Country. Defenseman Chris Haun was also sidelined due to sickness. Captain Harry Curran was also out, due to two-game suspension handed down from the league for his altercation from the previous game (one extra game for multiple suspensions).

The Arrows didn't look phased early, though, as Alex Posillico opened the scoring just 3:10 into the opening period. Posillico banked in his own rebound to give Sachem the early lead.

Sachem got into penalty trouble when Nick Lojo was handed a 10 minute misconduct for not using his mouthpiece. Mike Douros followed him to the box moments later, with a four minute major for roughing. The penalty kill came up big, keeping St. Anthony's off the board.

The Friars did break through with 2:38 left in the first period, when Shaun McGuire capitalized on a Sachem turnover at the blueline to tie the game 1-1.

Sachem came out controlling play in the first six minutes of the period, stringing shift after shift of pressure on Friars' goaltender Brian Boland, who kept his team in the game.

Boland couldn't do it all, though, as Chris Porcillo took the lead back for Sachem at 6:55 of the second period on a power play goal. St. Anthony's called a timeout to slow things down.

It worked for a while, until Martinez's slap-shot from the point on the power play gave Sachem a 3-1 lead. Brian Brogan added to it minutes later when his wrist shot beat Boland five-hole, giving Sachem the 4-1 lead.

Sachem dominated the second period at all ends of the ice, finishing with 21 shots on goal. They prevented the Friars from gaining a shot on goal until the final minute of the period.

McGuire scored his second of the game at 1:29 of the third period, when his backhand from the slot beat Sachem goaltender Will Harris.

Martinez matched McGuire with his second goal of the game, and second on the power play with 7:37 remaining in the game, giving Sachem the three goal lead again at 5-2.

Sachem went 3-3 on the power play Wednesday

It was all St. Anthony's from there on out. Tom Blackler cut the deficit to two, when his wrist shot on a 3-on-1 beat Harris. Ryan Calandra then brought the Friars to within one goal on his breakaway with 3:43 remaining.

Sal Ninnivaggi capped off a remarkable comeback for St. Anthony's with just 19 seconds remaining, when his slap-shot found twine over Harris' shoulder to tie the game 5-5.

Sachem applied pressure in overtime, including two different chances down-low, but could not beat Boland.

"We can throw all these complicated schemes at these players, but this was fundamentally not getting back, and not wanting to work," said Krammer.

Sachem's next game will be Monday against Smithtown at The Rinx.