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FITCHBURG — As far as losses go, you won’t find any more heartbreaking than the one suffered by Fitchburg State on Saturday.
With five seconds to go against conference-leading Plymouth State, the Falcons fell 3-2 in overtime at the Wallace Civic Center when their visitors scored the winner on a defensive breakdown.
The puck was pinned on the left boards at the end of the Hawks’ end, but it came free and got unmarked in front of Plymouth State’s Niks Krollis and the senior defender deked past Fitchburg State’s goalkeeper Max Macchioni and deposited the puck in the net with 4.8 seconds left. Play it.
“The kids really played their hearts out, but you have to make defensive mistakes and you can’t leave a guy alone playing three-on-three,” Fitchburg State head coach Dean Fuller said. “I don’t know exactly what happened there. We are going to see the movie and understand.
“For the most part, I thought the kids played a really solid game of hockey.”
The Panthers (15-3-1) improved to 12-0-0 with the win in conference play.
Gene Bouthiette scored twice and Machioni made 29 saves for Fitchburg State (8-8-3, 6-4-3 MASCAC), but the Panthers did their damage on the power play, going 2-for-7 on the afternoon.
The Falcons had their chances on the man advantage, but went 0-for-6 on the power play and couldn’t get past Panthers netminder Brendan Brawley (34 saves).
“They played hard, but I just wish we could have gotten something on the power play and not gotten a better result,” Fuller said.
Butte’s first goal came at 1:11 when the senior center beat Nolan Sargent in front of the Plymouth State net and the puck bounced past Brawley and the goal line.
After the Panthers pulled even with Connor Tait’s power play goal 5:45 into the second, Bootie scored his second goal of the game just 1:50 later to give the Falcons the lead. Up front, the Enfield, Connecticut, native got a shot from Wyatt Wilmshurst and fired it into the back of the net.
Jack Johannes assisted on Fitchburg State’s second goal of the day.
“Jean’s interception with a couple of goals was huge,” Fuller said. “He had a good game today.”
But the Panthers tied the game at 4:44 when Carson Lancelev’s shot went past the cornerback Machioni and into the net to mark Plymouth State’s second power play of the afternoon.
Machioni, on the other hand, has been fantastic for most of the season. In the second period, the freshman netminder posted 16 of his 29 saves as the Panthers shot him.
“Max is a good goalie,” Fuller said. I thought he did a good job tonight to keep us in the game.
The Falcons will return to the ice Thursday when they hit the road to face Salem State.
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