GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland ice hockey team has been to the sectional semifinals before. But Friday’s win, which put them back into the round of four for the first time in a couple of years, might have been the biggest in the program’s history.

The Skating Dutchmen came back from a three-goal deficit to beat Niskayuna-Schenectady, 4-3. Guilderland, however, lost the next night in the semifinals to Shenendehowa, 5-4, a team the Dutch lost to a couple of weeks earlier, 10-2.
"This is the biggest win we’ve had," said Guilderland Coach John DeRubertis after Friday’s game. "We’ve won sectional games before. But we were picked to come in last in the coaches’ poll, seven out of seven. That stuck with us. We came in here in fifth with a 9-6 league record.
"It’s huge for our program," DeRubertis added. "We have a lot of younger players. Hopefully, this gives us something to build on. Hopefully, more kids will come out for the Guilderland team now, instead of jumping to travel programs."

The Dutchmen got the two biggest goals of the season from a sophomore and another from a freshman as the Dutch were able to come back.

The Dutchmen trailed, 3-1, as the third and final period began. The Dutchmen went on the attack.

Guilderland senior captain John Potts blasted a shot on net that deflected off freshman Greg Warnken’s stick into the net to cut the lead to 3-2 with 12:53 left in the game.
"I really believe the game changed with the second goal," DeRubertis said. "We’d come out and go hard, and then we were back in a huge way. At that point, everyone on the bench felt it."

"Huge"

The Dutch had all the momentum and even scored on a rare opportunity.

Guilderland was trying to kill off a penalty and was down one player, when senior Luke Diamente made an aggressive play that ended with good results.
"That was huge," DeRubertis said. "They probably don’t score on the power play, but we start running out of time. That sparked us. The penalty killers usually stay back, and we caught them in a lull. We come out, and a third-line senior goes after it and goes to the puck and see what happens."

Diamente raced down a loose puck in the Niskayuna-Schenectady end. He got the puck along the boards behind the net and passed the puck to the front of the goal where Collin Burg was waiting and put the puck past Mohawk’s goalie Scott Hartz.
"Luke Diamente is a third-line guy, and a penalty killer," DeRubertis said. "He made a play, and got the puck to Collin and we picked up the goal. Collin Burg was huge."

The spotlight would shine more on Burg, as, with 2:01 left, he scored the winning goal.

Warnken passed the puck from behind the net to the front of the net, and Burg was there again, crashing the goal. Burg got to the puck and snapped a shot by Hartz to give the Dutchmen the lead, 4-3.

Guilderland was able to hold on, despite a scramble in front of its goal in the final minute, and advance to the Division I semifinals.

Niskayuna-Schenectady led 1-0 after the first period. Steve Cardinal hit a shot that clanked off the post and into the net for the Mohawks.

Cardinal gave his team a 2-0 lead on a breakaway goal early in the second period. Nick D’Amario gave the Mohawks a 3-0 lead after getting an assist from Mike Pasley, with 5:05 left in the middle stanza.

Guilderland’s Dan Dickinson cut the lead back to two 20 seconds later. Potts assisted on the tally for the Dutchmen.

Niskayuna-Schenectady finished the game with a 25-21 advantage in shots, but the Mohawks got 21 saves from Hartz. Guilderland goalie Brendan Glennon made 18 saves.
"This is unbelievable," DeRubertis said. "The first game we played them, it came right down to the wire. This was a great game. It was the same fashion as the time we played a few weeks back. We were down, 4-1, and this time we were down 3-1. I told the guys that we scored three goals in the third period last time; if we just get one goal, we’ll be in the game. Sure enough, we picked up a goal, and the momentum went from there."

Saturday’s loss ends the improbable season for the Dutchmen. They finish just short of upsetting the top-seeded team in Shenendehowa.

The back-to-back strong performances will bode well for the future of a young team.
"We don’t have any seniors from the blue line back," DeRubertis said. "And four of our six forwards are freshmen or sophomores. This is something we can take with us into the next season."