The Seawolves played host to the Albany Great Danes on Saturday night in a game that would determine who would host Wednesday’s America East semi-final match up between the two teams.
Stony Brook held a 7-5 lead at the end of the third quarter, but a crazy fourth that saw 13 goals scored gave the Seawolves flashbacks to Tuesday nights heartbreaking loss at Hofstra.
“Tuesday we didn’t finish,” Head Coach Rick Sowell said after the game. “Tonight we finished.”
Playing in front of a goaltender Rob Camposa, who was filling in for an injured Charlie Parr, the Seawolves held on to a 13-12 victory and secured a home game Wednesday.
“It’s exciting, I like to think there’s going to be a great crowd,” Sowell said. “Hopefully we’ll have the same results.”
Robbie Campbell and Tom Compitello scored the final two goals of the third quarter, and the Seawolves lead stood at two.
Then it got out of control.
“The first three quarters it was like we were sparring,” Sowell said. “And in the fourth the gloves went flying.”
After Albany scored the first two goals of the fourth quarter, Tom Compitello added two goals of his own in a 39 second span, including a beauty where he shook a defender and fired a point blank shot that beat the goaltender.
Timmy Trenkle added another goal two minutes later, and when Jordan McBride scored with 3:37 remaining on a perfectly placed shot, it looked like the Seawolves would coast to victory.
Fast-forward just seven second later, and Albany climbed back within three. 20 seconds later they struck again on a goal by Chris Schongar, which prompted a Stony Brook timeout.. And 36 seconds later the game was within one goal.
Stony Brook’s Adam Rand won the ensuing face off, and Kevin Crowley found the back of the Albany net just nine seconds later. Rand then won another face off, and this time is took Crowley 14 seconds to score and restore the Seawolves lead to three goals.
2:11 remained on the clock, but the Great Danes never gave up.
Derek Kreuzer scored with 1:41 left, and Dave Brock scored with only 12 seconds on the clock to set up a frantic final dash.
Albany won the face off, and Matthew Cushing picked up the groundball and brought the ball to the middle of the field. He lost control and the ball squirted away from the goal and towards the sideline. Eventually it was thrown the length of the field towards the Albany goal, and the final seconds ticked off.
These teams faced off twice last year as well, with Albany winning both contests. Coach Sowell said he expects Charlie Parr to be in goal on Wednesday night, but in the mean time Camposa enjoyed playing against a team he’s seen many time before.
“It was fun,” Camposa said. “I just wanted to come in and play my best.”
“I just wanted to beat Albany also,” he added. “Playing them the last couple years, it’s just a… hate, it’s a big rivalry. I just wanted to step in, stay strong, say positive, and play my best.”
Sowell said he’d enjoy this victory for 15 minutes, and then get right to game planning for the Seawolves most important game of the season.
“You have to expect it’s going to be a knock down, drag out fight,” he said.