FOXBORO – Syracuse Mountain Hockey played a near flawless tournament while at the 2014 Midget Fall Classic. They went 3-0 in pool play, scored a big win in the semifinals and were under a minute from hoisting the trophy on Monday at the Foxboro Sports Center. Then their fortunes changed with a last second equalizer, as it was Boston Advantage who scored the eventual overtime game-winner for a 2-1, U18 Championship win.
The Advantage were no strangers to comebacks during Monday’s playoff round. Trailing the Boston Generals 1-0 in the preliminary round, the equalizer came in the waning minutes and the game-winner came with 0:47 left on the clock. They spent much of their semifinal match with the Long Island Edge tied 1-1 until going on top for good with 1:51 remaining. All that was left in the final was 0:17.2.
Syracuse was in control of the game from the onset, Mateo Capriotti’s second goal of the day giving them a 1-0 lead at 2:21.They dominated possession to the point a championship seemed all by an inevitability, but – thanks to stellar play in net by Advantages’ Chris Dyson – Syracuse could not put the game away on the scoreboard.
With the puck in the Boston end with less than a minute to play, Syracuse had multiple attempts at an empty net with Dyson on the bench, but multiple times were thwarted by the Advantage defense. Boston cleared, went on the attack with just enough time to draw even on a Ken Mackin goal at 29:43.
Mackin played the roll of spoiler in the overtime period as well, scoring the game-winner with just over four minutes remaining in the first extra session. Boston taking the U18 Championship with a 2-1 win.
For his effort, Mackin was named an All-Tournament forward along with Capriotti and Syracuse’s Jesse Farabee. Boston’s Ricky Cronin and Syracuse’s Jared Pignone were selected as the All-Tournament defensive pair, while Dyson was named top goaltender.
Assisting on both the equalizer and game-winner, Advantage’s Matt Treiber was named as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
