By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
It was the game that wouldn’t end, and maybe the one that shouldn’t have ended, either.
For three 17-minute periods of regulation play and four 7 ½-minute overtime periods, the Penfield Patriots and Victor Blue Devils skated shot for shot, shot block for shot block, save for save and check for check, attempting to determine a Section V Class A hockey champion.
And yet, after 81 minutes of play and 98 shots on goal – 51 for Penfield, 47 for Victor — the score was still tied 2-2 on Sunday evening at SUNY Brockport’s Tuttle Ice Arena.
So, under Section 5 rules, the teams were declared co-champions, and then Victor prevailed in a nine-round shootout to earn a berth in Saturday’s state regional.
“I was dead,” said shootout hero Jackson Guck, who ended the Sunday evening hockey marathon on the ninth round with the 18th shot. “To be honest, if there was another overtime, I’m not sure we could have gone on.”
At no point could anyone ever have envisioned playing, and playing, and playing, and playing. Certainly not Penfield’s Sam Smock, who made scoring look easy when he buried a pass from Jacob Weiss for a 1-0 lead at 12:41 of the first period.
And not Victor’s Colin McNamara, who tied the score off a dazzling solo rush 5:29 into the second period.
VIEW MORE DENNIS JOYCE PHOTOS HERE.
Nor Penfield super-sniper Sean Smith, who sped away to score a short-handed goal and restore the lead at 14:48 of the second period for the top-seeded Patriots.
Sean Smith on the shorthanded breakaway, 2-1 @NYSphshockey @PickinSplinters pic.twitter.com/Vgq2G2xRj8
— Tim Irving (@Irvish5) February 27, 2022
And not even McNamara later on, when his power-play goal with 4:58 remaining in the third period forced overtime.
McNamara again, this time on a power play with 5 minutes left, tied at 2. @PickinSplinters pic.twitter.com/VVCyJxP7JY
— Tim Irving (@Irvish5) February 27, 2022
Even the shootout wouldn’t end. Scheduled for three shooters from each team, the Patriots and Blue Devils fittingly for this day made it last forever before Guck fired a shot past the catching glove of Penfield goalie Dom Andrade.
It was just the third shootout shot that found the net.
“That’s just unreal,” said Mike Ferreri, coach of second-seeded Victor (18-2-3). “Both teams played their hearts out for however many minutes.”
They did so for every heart-stopping minute. Like in the first minute of the second overtime, when Smock was shooting toward what he thought was a mostly open right side of the net, only to see Victor goalie Max Pitts leaping across to block the shot.
Like in the sixth minute of the fourth overtime, when Pitts flung up his catching glove to snare a wicked straight-on slap shot by Smith from just above the circles.
“What a shot, what a save,” Ferreri said.
It was a sure goal, only then it wasn’t.
“I barely saw the puck and then I got my arm up and was able to make the save,” Pitts said. “I was kind of in awe I made it.”
So were his teammates. And the opposition.
“I can’t believe he pulled that one off,” Guck said.
While the Blue Devils celebrated the school’s fifth sectional title in eight years, Penfield players sought consolation from one another after a premature end to their season.
The official title as co-champion brought only emptiness and heartbreak.
“I don’t think anyone in that room wants to be consider a co-champion,” said Penfield coach Nate Miller, whose club finished 20-1-2. “The kids threw everything they had on the line. I’m incredibly proud to be their coach. We’ve got warriors in the room.”
Miller and the Patriots actually have been here before. In 2017, they were ousted in the sectional quarterfinals by McQuaid in a three-round shootout after four overtimes couldn’t decide a winner.
“I’m disappointed it had to end this way for our group,” Miller said. “The effort, the energy, the compete was top-notch. I think the record this year was indicative of the work ethic.”
Once overtime had ended and the shootout began, Ferreri said the coaches tried to stay out of the way and let the players use their own creativity in the shootout.
“Let kids be kids,” he said.
Pitts said he worried only about the next shooter.
“I would look down, see the guy coming and focus on that,” he said. “I was trying to stay in the moment, focus on that.”
Before Guck took his shot, he said he had an idea of what to do “but honestly I was hoping I didn’t lose the puck.”
He didn’t, attacking with speed before firing home the shot that brought a sudden end to the game that wouldn’t end.
“Both goalies were outstanding,” Ferreri said. “I’m glad they do it this way with co-champions because no one deserved to lose this game.”
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