Drexel Holds On To Beat Albany
ECRHA November 22nd, 2009 at 2:17PM
Bethpage, NY- Pete Psyrris scored three goals and Brian Smith made 16 saves in his first game in the 2009-2010 ECRHA Season to lead the Drexel Dragons past the Albany Great Danes in ECRHA Division II action Sunday morning.
Drexel got things started in the first period when Jim Rish fired a shot past Albany goalie Justin Goldberg on the power play to give Drexel the early 1-0 lead. However, that would be all the scoring in first as both Goldberg and Smith turned aside all the scoring chances in the first.
Mike Keenan got the scoring started for the Great Danes in the second as he put one past Smith to tie the game up at 1 apiece. The effort would be short lived, however, as Psyrris scored the first of his three goals at 6:07 of the second period. Just 1:06 later, Psyrris would strike again, this time on a feed from Chris Adams, his third assist of the game. This gave Drexel a two goal lead going into the third.
Albany, poised to cut the lead to one, scored eight seconds into the third on a beautiful short handed goal by Andrew Barone. The momentum seemed to turn Albany's way as Chris Adams and Jim Rish of Drexel both took minor penalties at 10:33 of the third, giving Albany a two-man advantage. Smith turned away several Albany chances on the 4 on 2, keeping his team ahead by one. With twenty seconds left on the man advantage, it was Psyrris again, as he picked off an Albany pass and raced down the rink, beating Goldberg on a nifty move to make it 4-2 Drexel. Albany cut the lead back down to one with 3:41 as Barone would score the second of his two goals, as Nick Iuliucci and Justin Silverstein got the helpers. Albany pulled the goalie in favor for the extra attacker in an attempt to salvage a tie, but Smith was there to close the door for the Dragons, as they escaped with the 4-3 victory.
With the win, Drexel improves to 5-5-1, while Albany falls to 2-7-1.