The Norwich Sea Captains dropped a very competitive, hard fought game to the Northeast Generals 4-1 in North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) action on Friday evening, November 11 at the RoseGarden Ice Arena in Norwich. The Generals scored in the first minute of play, taking a lead that they would not relinquish throughout the game. A late goal from the Sea Captains made the score 3-1 with a little more than two minutes remaining, but Northeast was able to find the open net when Norwich pulled their goaltender to send an extra attacker on the ice to put the final tally on the board.
The opening minute goal was the only scoring through two periods of play. Northeast had the better of the play in the first period, but the second stanza was very evenly played. Northeast made their lead 2-0 5:19 into the third period when they capitalized on a miscommunication between a Norwich defender and goaltender Andrew Yocum to steal the puck and score. They made the score 3-0 a bit less than two minutes later when a shot through traffic found the net. A gorgeous passing play from Brian Essing to Angelo Donzella to Sava Makarenko led to the Sea Captains marker with 2:22 left to play. The goal was Makarenko’s sixth of the season. The Norwich offense made a valiant push, especially with the goaltender pulled, but got no closer before the Northeast empty net goal.
Yocum made 38 saves in the Norwich net and both teams went scoreless on the power play. Northeast had two opportunities with the man advantage while the Sea Captains had four.
“The opening minute goal hurt us tonight. We did not play as well, or as organized, as we needed to in the first period and that set us up to chase the game all night. Full credit to Northeast for doing what they needed to do and taking advantage of their opportunities,” said Norwich Head Coach Kevin Cunningham about the game.
The teams will meet again on Saturday evening at 7 PM in Attleboro, MA. The game will be broadcast on HockeyTV for fans who cannot make the trip to Massachusetts.