GUILDERLAND — The team survived a late scare by Shenendehowa on Tuesday night for its fourth consecutive win over the Plainsmen.

The Dutchmen led, 6-1, after three periods and held on for a 7-4 win under the lights of the football field at the high school.
"It’s great to beat Shen under the lights," said Guilderland Coach Sean McConaghy. "It was a big game for these guys."

The Dutch were led by a tough defense that gave up only one goal in three quarters. The Dutch also won the game without one of their leaders — senior Mike Camardo — who is out with an ankle injury.
"The best part of this was Mike was on the sidelines," McConaghy said. "He’s not going to be here next year. The younger kids believe they can win without him."

The Dutchmen dominated the contest through the first three periods and jumped out to the lead with 10:47 left in the first quarter.

Defenseman Scott Raffensperger scored the first goal after getting the ball on a clear from the defensive end and running through the Shen team to fire a shot past Shenendehowa goalie Alex Bayer.

Shen tied the game with 2:39 left in the opening stanza on a tally by John Olsen who had a one-versus-one with the goalie after a Guilderland defender slipped.

But Guilderland bounced back less than a minute later when Matt Stillman scored after getting a great pass to the front of the goal from Bob McIver.

Guilderland tagged on a goal in the second quarter. Ben Newell scored with 10:05 left in the second stanza with an assist from Aaron Cahill on a man-up opportunity after a Shenendehowa penalty.

Guilderland dominated possession in the second quarter but could not connect on any more scoring opportunities and went into the intermission with a 3-1 lead.

"Defense came to play"

The Dutchmen finally found the back of the net in the third quarter.

Uriah Myrie scored the first goal of the period with 3:03 left. Myrie finished off another great feed from McIver in front of the goal to put Guilderland up, 4-1.

Newell scored his second extra-man goal of the contest. This time Newell scored after cutting to the goal and receiving a pass from McIver with 2:16 left in the quarter.

McIver finally got a tally of his own with 42 seconds left in the third period. McIver got the ball behind the cage and, instead of passing the ball, worked around to the front and fired a shot past Bayer.

But Shen wouldn’t go away and made things interesting for the Dutchmen.

Olsen scored his second goal of the game with 11:45 left in the final stanza. Greg Hitchko added a goal with an assist from Mitch Dewein to cut the lead in half, 6-3, with 6:41 to go in the game.

Stillman answered for the Dutch with an unassisted goal with 6:14 left in the contest.

Olsen picked up his third goal with five minutes left in the game, this time with an assist from Kyle Walsh.

Shen trailed by a score of 7-4 but would not get any closer as Guilderland held the ball on offense and got solid defense and superb goaltending by Judd Robinson.

Robinson finished the contest with 12 saves and Bayer made 13 saves for Shen.

The Dutch also got a great performance from Jordan Dubose on face-offs to start the offense.
"It helped that Jordan won all those face-offs," McConaghy said. "Jordan came to play and we were able to get on them early."

The Guilderland defense was also phenomenal for most of the contest.
"The defense came to play," McConaghy said. "They [Shen] moved the ball well, but our guys never gave them anything."

The Dutch also stayed out of the penalty box, getting called for just three fouls in the contest.

Young talent

Guilderland is getting good play from its younger players and that made it easier to fill in for the injured Camardo.
"The sophomores and juniors are starting to step it up," McConaghy said. "We are just trying to do some things to make people replaceable. Not that you can replace Mike. Aaron Cahill did a great job of taking the wing [on face-offs] and getting ground balls. Next year, we won’t have Mike and Bob and Judd and Sean. We need players X, Y, and Z to step up."

The win bumped the Dutch’s record to 11-2 overall and 8-1 in the Suburban Council. They have five more games to go before the end of the regular season.

The Dutch will play Colonie today (Thursday), Columbia on Tuesday, and Bethlehem next Thursday. Guilderland wraps up the season with games against at Saratoga on May 16 and Niskayuna on May 18.
"We still have Colonie and Columbia, which has one loss, coming up," McConaghy said. "We also have Saratoga and Niskayuna. Our season can change like that. We have to keep the train rolling and be playing our best heading into sectionals."