Sean Tittel Puts The Patriots On Ice

Sean Tittel scored the game winning goal on a five minute power play as the Northport Huntington Tigers (7-8) took down the Ward Melville Patriots (3-10-1-1) by a final score of 7-5. Boden Rudloff picked up his fourth win through eight starts this season. Michael Sittler was stellar in the comeback effort, but was unable to pick up the win in his ninth start of the campaign. Defenseman Ryans Collins returned to the lineup for the Tigers, but fellow blue liner Austin Ruthkowski was unavailable for Sunday Night’s game. 

Jake Mangano scored a power play goal off a wrist shot from the slot with 10:06 remaining in the 1st period to give the Ward Melville Patriots a 1-0 lead. With 5:18 remaining in the period, Ryan Collins scored a power play goal on a shot from the left wing face off dot to put the Northport Huntington Tigers on the board. After fifteen minutes the game was tied at 1-1.

At the start of the second stanza Michael Agafonov went coast to coast to enter the Ward Melville zone, but a poke check by Patriots defenseman Patrick Scali from just inside the Ward Melville blue line nearly broke up the play. However, Northport Huntington’s Ryan Colapinto pounced on the loose puck and made a nice feed to Agafonov as the Tigers star drove to the net and beat a sliding Sittler top shelf from the back door with 14:31 remaining in the 2nd period. Northport Huntington blue liner Patrick Schmidt beat Sittler five hole from beneath the hash marks to score his first career SCHSHL Varsity goal and extend the Tigers lead to two with 10:24 remaining in the second stanza. Northport Huntington continued to dominate possession in the 2nd period. The Tigers jumped out to a 4-1 lead after J.T. Caruso forced a turnover in the Patriots zone and made a quick pass to Michael Agafonov who scored his second of the game with 6:03 remaining in the frame. After it appeared that the Tigers would take a 5-1 lead with 42 seconds reminding in the 2nd period, on-ice officials determined there was no goal on the play. Instead the officials awarded a goal to Ward Melville’s Jake Mangano on a shot that appeared to go off the bar and out just twenty-eight seconds prior.

Jake Mangano netted the hat trick with 12:17 remaining in the 3rd period off a shot from the slot that came after a beautiful feed from Jack McCormick. With 11:10 remaining in regulation Sean Tittel scored his first of the night to put Northport Huntington back up by two. Just thirty seconds later Anthony Cerulli redirected a shot from the point past Rudloff to cut the Tigers lead to one. With 9:22 remaining in the 3rd period Jack McCormick blew past a Northport Huntington defender, put the puck between his legs and beat the Tigers netminder five hole on the breakaway to tie the game at 5-5. The Patriots had trailed since the start of the second period. Thirty-one seconds after the Patriots evened the score, Jake Mangano was assessed a five minute major for charging, a game misconduct penalty for charging and an additional game misconduct for unsportsmanlike conduct and was ejected from the game as the Tigers went on the power play. Sean Tittel scored the game winning goal on a rebound in the slot with 8:08 remaining in the game and with four minutes and seventeen seconds left on the Tigers power play. Tittel scored the game winning goal in overtime in the Tigers first meeting of the season against the Patriots. Michael Sittler and the Patriots penalty kill were sensational as they killed off the remainder of the five minute major. After an elbowing call was assessed to Northport Huntington’s Michael Agafonov, the Patriots pulled Sittler in favor of an extra attacker to create a six on four odd man advantage. Just sixteen seconds later, J.T. Caruso scored a shorthanded, empty net goal to seal the deal for the Northport Huntington Tigers.  

Scoring Summary

Penalties by Period

Three Stars of the Game

Looking to Sweep The Season Series

The Northport Huntington Tigers will take on the Kings Park Commack Knights at the Rinx at Hidden Ponds Park on Wednesday January 10th at 9:00 PM. Three Varsity games are currently scheduled to take place on Wednesday at the Rinx, so this matchup is currently set to take place on the South Rink. In their first meeting of the season it was J.T. Caruso who scored the game winning goal in overtime as the Tigers knocked off the Knights in stunning fashion by a final score of 2-1.

A Chance To Settle The Score

The Ward Melville Patriots will look to settle the score at the Rinx at Hidden Ponds Park at 9:20 PM as they take on a Sachem squad that won round one by a final score of 11-2. Jake Mangano was unavailable in Ward Melville’s first matchup against Sachem and it appears the same will hold true on Wednesday night due to the Ward Melville Captain being assessed two game misconduct penalties in one game.