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GENESEO, N.Y. -- Host Geneseo outscored Nazareth 3-1 in the final 20 minutes to rally past the Golden Flyers for a 4-2 men's hockey victory Saturday in non-conference action.
The loss gives Nazareth a split in its opening weekend of action. The Golden Flyers also defeated Cortland, 5-2, Friday and will bring a 1-1 overall record into next Friday's United Collegiate Hockey Conference opener at home against Utica at 7 p.m.. The Knights, ranked 10th nationally by d3hockey.com and 12th by uscho.com, improved to 2-0 with a Friday win over Neumann counted in the mix.
"I thought we played really hard, but they are very good and deserved to win," said Nazareth Coach
George Roll. "(Goalie Michael) Tilford played great for us and kept us in it."
Nazareth led 1-0 after one period and then rallied early in the third to tie the score at 2-2. Geneseo, however, regained the lead for good just three minutes after Nazareth's goal and the Knights tacked on a power play goal to seal the deal.
Despite being outshot 11-3 in the first period, Nazareth was able to take advantage of a five-minute power play that resulted from an interference call on Geneseo's Ryan Hartman at 14:58 of the opening frame. A scramble in front of the Geneseo goal ended with freshman
Connor Davis scoring his first career goal with assists to
Zander Pryor and
Matt Manzella.
Geneseo's Mitch Ferguson then evened the score midway through the second period to set the stage for a more wide open third period.
Geneseo scored just 1:40 into the period on a goal by Tyson Empey, but the Golden Flyers showed resilience when junior
David Powlowski answered just 16 seconds later with assists from Manzella and
Owen Kuhns.
The Knights continued to put pressure on -- they outshot Nazareth 43-16 overall -- and finally scored the go-ahead goal at 4:43 of the third. They added an insurance goal when Duggie Lagrone converted on the power play after Nazareth's
Cody Antonini was penalized for checking from behind.
Nazareth's last gasp came on the closing minutes after Geneseo's Cam Russell was whistled for a two-minute cross-checking infraction. The Flyers also pulled goaltender
Michael Tilford in favor of an extra skater, but they were unable to generate a shot on goal.
Tilford played well for Nazareth in making a career-high 39 saves. Combined with his 34-save effort vs. Cortland Friday, Tilford has a .924 save percentage for the weekend.
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