Bayliss' OT Game-Winner Lifts Hornets Past Taconic
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Everett Bayliss scored in the first minute of overtime Saturday to give the McCann Tech hockey team a 6-5 win over Taconic at the Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Rink.
Bayliss picked up a loose puck on the left wing, skated through the slot and slipped a backhander past Taconic keeper Joseph Schneider (32 saves) 32 seconds into the extra session to cap a back-and-forth contest in the first meeting of Wright Division rivals this season and the Hornets’ first win over the Thunder in three years.
“I was coming in,” Bayliss said. “Obviously, it’s four-on-four, you’ve got to play pressure. Their defenseman played it off the boards, and it was just a miscommunication. I don’t know if the guy didn’t hear him, but I just came in, took it by his feet, put it on my backhand and scored.”
It was Bayliss’ third goal of the game. He and linemate Dallas Ritcher each had a hat trick, and the third member of the first-line trio, Nolan Booth had a pair of assists as McCann Tech improved to 3-2 overall and 3-0 in the league with its third straight win.
McCann Tech scored first and took a 3-1 lead with 3:37 left in the first period when Ritcher scored on a breakaway.
But Phillip Enoch and Alex Jerebtsov answered right away for the Thunder, who tied it, 3-3, after one period.
Midway through the second, Taconic took a lead on Jerebtsov’s second goal, and it stayed 4-3, Thunder going to the third.
After taking the two-goal lead in the first, the Hornets may have let their guard down a bit, Bayliss said.
“I think we were going into this game [thinking], they lost to Amherst, 5-2, and beat Amherst, 4-1, so obviously we were coming in a little more confident,” he said. “But the second period … shows how tight and competitive our league can be and how most of these games are going to be.
“And in the locker room, we really got our energy up, especially coming into this third period we knew what we had to do. And I think that’s what really got us – just getting our energy up, playing together, playing as a team.”
Bayliss scored McCann Tech’s second power play goal of the game to tie it in the fourth minute of the third period, and Ritcher scored with an assist from Booth to give the Hornets a 5-4 lead with 9:53 left.
Special teams were a big factor in the game. McCann Tech scored two power play goals while holding Taconic scoreless on four man-up opportunities, including one that came with 2:47 left in the third period of a 5-5 game.
“Our penalty kill has been fantastic,” McCann Tech coach Matt Parise said. “And it doesn’t matter who I put out. They’re all doing a very good job of it.”
But Taconic, which overcame deficits of 1-0, 3-1 and 5-4 in the game, again had the answer; Jerebtsov completed his natural hat trick midway through the third period to tie it and eventually send the game to OT.
Ben Harris made 26 saves for McCann Tech, which hosts Brattleboro, Vt., next Saturday night.
Taconic (0-3) goes to Amherst for a rematch on Tuesday.