Senior goalie Aaron Green
(Mt. Albert, ONT) made a career-high 59 saves including 21 in the third
period for The College at Brockport Hockey team to help preserve a 6-4
victory over Geneseo in the first round of the State University of New
York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Tournament Wednesday night in Geneseo.
Brockport advances to play Plattsburgh at 7 pm Saturday, February 28 in Plattsburgh in one SUNYAC semifinal game. Buffalo State, a 6-2 winner over Potsdam, will face Oswego at 7 PM Saturday in Oswego in the other SUNYAC Tournament semifinal.
Green made 19 saves in the opening period as Brockport (13-11-2) scored three times in the first 20 minutes as Geneseo (12-10-4) outshot the Golden Eagles 20-8 to start the game.
Chase Nieuwendyk (Georgetown, ONT) opened the scoring five minutes into the game. Defenseman Jonathan Demme (Brampton, ONT) fed a pass to Nieuwendyk as he skated through the Geneseo defense and in on the goalie before beating the goalie to the low glove side giving Brockport an early 1-0 lead.
Five minutes later, Brockport took a 2-0 lead as Dylan Shapiro (Rochester, NY) tipped in a pass from Aidan Verbeke (Elwood Park, IL) from the corner.
With less than three minutes left in the period and near the end of a power play opportunity, Geneseo scored its first goal after a scramble for the puck behind the goal. The puck skipped out from behind the goal and a quick one-timer found the back of the net to trim the Brockport lead to 2-1.
On the ensuing faceoff, Brockport moved the puck into the offensive zone and a pass from the corner to Chris Luker (New Hartford, NY) moving down the middle of the zone gave him an open shot that he tucked inside the post for a 3-1 Brockport lead as the first period came to an end.
In the second period, Brockport fought off a power play to start the period and then took a 4-1 lead at the 6:45 mark in the period as Troy Polino (Limerick, PA) as the senior beat the Geneseo goalie with a low shot to the stick side.
Midway through the period, Geneseo cut the lead in half with a shot from the point when Green was screened by a Geneseo player in the slot.
Shapiro scored his second goal of the game three minutes later to regain the three-goal advantage. Verbeke made the pass to the front of the goal and Shapiro scored with another low shot to the glove side as Brockport took a 5-2 lead.
Geneseo had another power play goal early in the third period. Brockport killed off the penalty but surrendered a goal 10 seconds after the power play to make it a 5-3 Brockport lead.
Six minutes into the period, Green made his 46th save of the game surpassing his previous career best effort. Green had 45 saves against Oswego last year.
With less than six minutes left in the third period, Brockport went on a power play but it was the Geneseo defense that took advantage nearly scoring one shorthanded goal as Green made another big save but 20 seconds later, a wrap-around shot from behind the goal found the back of the net and trimmed the lead to 5-4.
Green was called on to make more big saves as Geneseo went on another power play with 3:38 left to play but Brockport fought off the penalty including the last minute of the power play with the Geneseo goalie on the bench in favor of the extra attacker.
With 48 seconds left, Jeremy DeFazio (Oakville, ONT) scored into the empty Geneseo net for the final 6-4 score.
Brockport extended a streak of 12 consecutive wins when scoring at lead five goals dating back to 2012.
