The L/A Fighting Spirit keep finding ways win.
On Saturday evening, they squeaked out a 3-2 road victory in overtime over the Cape Cod Islanders at the Falmouth Ice Arena in Falmouth, Mass. The Fighting Spirit have earned 30 out of 32 points this season as they improve to 15-1 on the year in the NA3EHL.
“It might have been one of our hardest fought battles that we had this season,” Fighting Spirit’s acting head coach Cam Robichaud said. “(The Islanders) are a solid team; it’s our third time playing them. The first game was 3-2, the second game was 1-0 and here again in overtime, winning by one goal. They are pretty physical, they were ready to play us. We could tell right when we got here today that their whole team was really juiced up to be playing us.”
After a three-game pointless streak, defenseman Brady McNulty was key for the Fighting Spirit. He had an assist on Ryan MacIntosh goal that put L/A up 2-1 with 9:05 remaining in the game. Brett Bittner was also credited with an assist on the goal.
MacIntosh, who is in the National Guard, was called-up for game after Nick Hudson broke his wrist Friday night and will likely miss 6-8 weeks. This was MacIntosh’s fourth game of the season. He also scored on Sept. 13 in the 5-1 win over the East Coast Minutemen.
“He understands that (he’s a fill-in player), so he does a good job keeping up with gym time and getting in much as he can,” Robichaud said. “Like I said, it’s only a situation where we really need him.”
Robichaud also said the coaching staff is also looking to bring one more forward in. Also missing the game was Tyler Sheridan who’s out with a concussion.
With the game going into overtime after Anthony Giannelli tied the game up with 6:36 remaining in the game, McNaulty played the role of hero when he notched his fourth goal of the season 3:27 into overtime, with Bittner getting his second assist on the goal.
“Brady McNulty gets a lot of points as a defenseman and even when he’s not getting points he’s doing good things,” Robichaud said. “He’s an overall two-way defender, he plays on the offensive side, he plays on the defensive side. He’s our captain. He’s very smart individual looking at schools to study pharmacy. He has some very good plans for the future.”
Giannelli picked up his first goal of the game to give Cape Cod a 1-0 lead 7:32 into the game with Dylan Legarie and Dan Moore notching an assist.
Simon Corriveau tied the game up for the Fighting Spirit in the second period with his seventh goal of the season. Mark Ferullo who has collected point in five out of his last seven games, picked up a helper on the goal.
Claes Endre made 46 saves as he improves his record to 9-1. Anton Zemba stopped 39 shots in the losing effort.
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