The Norwich Sea Captains dropped a 4-2 decision to the Bay State Bobcats on Saturday evening, January 8 at the RoseGarden Ice Arena in North American 3 Hockey League action. Brian Woak scored twice and Ian Skinner added a tally and two helpers to pace the visitor’s offensive attack while Ben DiFiore made 32 saves in net.
The Bobcats struck first as Woak’s deflection staked the visitors to a 1-0 lead 9:55 into play. The Sea Captains answered 5:57 into the second period when Drew Schemmel tucked a rebound home after a nifty passing play from Troy Harwell to Max Tapia led to a point blank scoring chance. With the game tied 1-1 Norwich took a hooking penalty and Bay State was able to score on the power play as Skinner’s turnaround shot found the twine 7:58 into the middle stanza. The Bobcats extended their lead 1:03 later when they capitalized on a Norwich turnover. The Sea Captains cut the margin back to one when Evan Tower scored his first goal in a Norwich uniform on the power play at the 16:20 mark of the second. Ethan Ranger assisted on Tower’s power play marker.
Bay State was able to reestablish their two goal lead 2:11 into the third on Woak’s second goal. Despite sustained pressure and quality chances until the final horn, Norwich was not able to get another puck past DiFiore and the Bobcats sealed a hard-fought 4-2 win. Brendan Pellerito suffered the loss in the Norwich net.
Head coach Kevin Cunningham expressed mixed emotions about his team’s effort saying, “I thought we did a number of good things tonight, but the game came down to Bay State making us pay for four mistakes. To their credit, they executed and turned those opportunities in goals. I thought we had some strong periods of play throughout the game and, unfortunately, missed on some quality offensive chances that could have turned the game, particularly late in the second period.”
Norwich has a busy week coming up as they host the Northeast Generals on Wednesday, January 12 and the Long Beach Sharks again on Monday, January 17. They also have a trip to New Jersey to tangle with the Titans on Thursday, January 13 sandwiched in between those home contests. Tickets to both home games are available HERE.