Delisle's Late Goal Gives Drury 2-2 Tie
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- A goal is a goal is a goal, and with less than a minute left in the second period and the Drury hockey team trailing, 2-0, the Blue Devils needed to find the net any way they could.
Corbin Rumbolt somehow managed to flip the puck over South Hadley’s goaltender from an impossible angle and sparked Drury to a comeback for a 2-2 tie of the Tigers at Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Rink on Wednesday night.
“We’re always telling the kids to get the shot on net from anywhere,” Drury coach Kevin Ellingwood said. “I think it just snuck in over the goalie’s shoulder.
“I don’t want to say ‘garbage goal’ because we tell the kids to get the pucks on the net. But it snuck in. We’ll take it.”
David Delisle scored the equalizer with 2:31 left in the game, and keeper Corey Callander and the Drury defense withstood a furious effort by South Hadley in the closing minute to preserve the tie.
Callendar was sharp all night for Drury (5-5-4), which also generated a fair amount of offensive pressure in the early going against South Hadley’s Anthony Cigal.
“We actually are doing a great job of getting a lot of shots on net,” Ellingwood said. “We’ve had a couple of tough losses recently where we outshot the other team. We’re getting them there. We’re not necessarily finishing, or maybe they’re not quality shots. But the effort is there to get the shots.
“I’m pleased with that. Last year, we struggled with getting shots on net.”
Neither Drury nor South Hadley could put one in the net in a first period that saw both defenses stave off the games’ only power-play opportunities.
The Tigers broke through in the 18th minute when Matthew Brunelle scored a goal in the slot.
Moments later, South Hadley had a golden opportunity to extend their lead, Callendar gloved a shot off the stick of South Hadley’s Mike Mazza, who was left unmarked in front of the net and took a cross from the right wing.
South Hadley eventually did get that second goal with 1:49 left in the second. This time, Mazza took a cross from the left wing, and the Tigers’ captain finished to give his team a 2-0 advantage.
With 52 seconds left in the period, Cigal failed to cover a Drury dump-in from the neutral zone, instead attempting to play it to one of his defensemen behind him. Rumbolt got to the puck first, and even though Cigal covered the post, Rumbolt still managed to score from the goal line to get Drury on the board.
Drury rode that momentum to a strong third period, but could not solve Cigal again until the 43rd minute.
That is when Omar Uqdah centered the puck from behind for Delisle, who finished to make it 2-2.
“It was a good effort, good come from behind for our guys,” Ellingwood said. “We’re down one of our key players right now for a couple of games, so good effort.
“Great game by our goalie, Corey Callander. He kept us in it. They had a breakaway with 20 seconds in the game, and he stuffed it to keep us in it. Great effort. We’ll take a tie in that case. And they’re a good hockey team.”
With five games left in the regular season, Drury will look to get back above .500 on Saturday evening when it faces Wahconah at the Boys & Girls Club of the Berkshires.