GUILDERLAND — Finally.

After being on the cusp many times this season, the Skating Dutchmen got their first win, beating Burnt Hills/Scotia-Glenville, 5-3, on Friday night.
"This is great," said Guilderland Coach John DeRubertis. "I’ve never experienced going winless over 11 games. It was killing me to get a win."
Looking back at the season, he went on, "The first weekend we played ugly hockey but, since then, the games we are losing, we are right there in the third. We came back to tie and lost in a shootout or we lost a one-goal game."

On Friday at the Achilles Rink at Union College, the Dutchmen were involved with another close game, but this time they were able to pull it out in the third period.

The game was tied late in the second period when Guilderland got its biggest goal of the season to date.

The Dutchmen got the puck in their defensive end as junior Ben Fogel got the puck to senior captain Tim Montgomery.

The speedy Montgomery started a breakaway and found freshman Colin Burg who had a one-on-one with Burnt Hills goalie Nick Wilson.

Burg shot from the left and fired the puck low between the goalie’s leg pads to give the Dutch the lead, 4-3, with just three seconds left in the period.

Montgomery added a goal in the third period that sealed the win for Guilderland. Burg and Fogel assisted on the final tally of the game.
"He has been a great leader on and off the ice," DeRubertis said of Montgomery. "He definitely isn’t lacking in any area for me."

Back and forth

Burnt Hills scored first in the contest. Brian Boni, assisted by Matt Fitts, got the first goal with 9:31 left in the opening frame.

But Guilderland tied the game with 5:58 left in the first period. Aaron Cahill scored on a well-placed slap shot from just inside the blue line. Montgomery and Burg assisted on the score.

Burnt Hills/Scotia-Glenville scored first in the second period, too, with 12:12 left in the frame. Eric Nichols got the tally with an assist going to Steven Nichols.

Again, Guilderland came back to tie the game.

With 5:11 left in the middle period, Jeff Geisendorf made a long-distance shot. Geisendorf’s shot found the lower right corner to tie the game. John Moran got the assist on the goal.

Montgomery gave the Dutchmen the lead with 2:38 left in the second stanza.

Cahill took another hard shot that bounced off the dasher behind and right of the goal. The puck bounced to Montgomery who fired it into the net to give his team the lead.

Steve Culver tied the game for Burnt Hills with 42 seconds to go in the period. Culver scored on a power play after a Guilderland penalty by Nick Koss.

Culver got to a loose puck in front of the net and buried it into the goal. He was assisted by Mike Desormeaux and Matt Relyea.

But then, just 39 seconds later, Guilderland got the game-winning goal.
"Burnt Hills was 7-1 coming into the game and you have to go back three or four years since they were close to beating us," DeRubertis said. "We’ve had some great teams here. But this was definitely not a gimme. We obviously can’t take anybody lightly. They haven’t had a win against us but we knew Burnt Hills was hot. They beat Saratoga and lost to Shenendehowa in a game that was a lot closer than the score."

Star

Though the Dutch got a lot of offense, goalie Adam Gray was probably the first star of the game. Gray made 38 saves to anchor a young defense that looked inexperienced at times. Gray stopped 15 shots in each of the first two frames and made eight saves to hold up the Guilderland lead.

Gray made all the saves he should have, but also stopped some point-blank shots in impressive fashion.
"He faced 42 shots," DeRubertis said. "We are young on defense, and there have been one or two games where we outshot the other team. If you look at it, they had 42 shots but they didn’t have many solid rebound opportunities. He keeps us in the game."

The win improves the Dutchmen to 1-2 in the Capital District High School Hockey League and 1-8-2 overall.
"It’s kind of a new season," DeRubertis said.

Loss to Saratoga

The win came after a 4-2 loss to Saratoga last Wednesday.

Saratoga had a 2-0 lead late in the second period until Montgomery put the Dutchmen on the board.

Montgomery scored with 5:10 left in the period, getting assists from Koss and John Potts.

Guilderland tied the game with 8:56 to go in the third period on Montgomery’s second goal of the contest. Burg and Jon Fogel assisted on this goal for the Dutchmen.

Saratoga regained the lead just a couple of minutes later on a goal by Alex Stone.

Stone sealed the win for the Blue Streaks with an empty-net goal with 44 seconds left in the contest.

Gray made 33 saves in goal for the Dutch.

"Game by game"

DeRubertis pushed his guys to keep working despite the constant losing.
"I’ve been trying to go game by game and really challenge them," the coach said. "I don’t take a single player and berate them. I challenge them individually. If a kid does not have a goal, I challenge him to try and put the puck in the net.
"We are just going game by game," DeRubertis added. "Certainly each game we’ll be there. This was really big for us. It shows that the kids are capable."

DeRubertis definitely has faith in his team.
"I’m proud of them," the coach said. "You can take any team in New York State that also has a 0-9 record and they couldn’t compete with us."