Alek Aleshin celebrates after scoring the winning goal in overtime for Fox Lane. Ryan Goldstein controls along the boards for Fox Lane. Fox Lane teammates mob Mark Chen (39) after his goal tied the game to send it to overtime. Hank Hearon of Fox Lane makes his move to the goal against Monroe-Woodbury. Jim MacLean photos
By JIM MACLEAN
It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. That was certainly true for the Fox Lane ice hockey team as it hosted Monroe-Woodbury at the Brewster Ice Arena on Jan. 5.
It was a terrible start as the Foxes fell behind 3-0 in the first period against a team they had already beaten earlier this season. That made the finish even more exciting as Fox Lane rallied back to send it to overtime, where senior Alek Aleshin buried a one-timer on a perfect pass from Johan Bai for the game-winning goal in a 5-4 victory.
“We needed to dial in and make no more mistakes and we came back,” Aleshin said after the victory. “Third period we cleaned it up. We were so excited going into overtime. Jonah made a great pass from down low right to me and we just had to finish this game and go home.”
The swing in emotions was a big one for Fox Lane as the Foxes celebrated a thrilling comeback to win in overtime. That was a big turnaround from the end of the first period where Fox Lane coach Tom McGinn had an animated discussion with his team about what had happened and what needed to be done on the ice.
“To comeback being down 3-0 early in the game, we’ve had some rough games this year and it’s easy to lose focus and go downhill expecting the worst,” explained McGinn. “We had a conversation with each other about how we were going to come out and take this game back and they did a great job, worked together, picked each other up and turned it around to get that win and we’re really proud of them.”
Fox Lane answered the challenge and responded in the second period, with Hank Hearon getting the Foxes on the board scoring an unassisted goal just a couple of minutes into the period to cut the lead down to 3-1.
Hearon scored again as the Foxes pounced on a short-handed opportunity with Aleshin feeding Hearon for his second goal of the game with 2:18 left in the second period to cut the lead down to 3-2.
Monroe-Woodbury took advantage of a power play opportunity and scored with just 28 seconds left in the period to regain the momentum with a goal for a 4-2 lead heading into the third period.
However, Fox Lane came out fired up for the third period and dominated. Aleshin scored a power play goal off an assist from Ryan Goldstein at 8:37 to cut the lead down to 4-3.
Defenseman Mark Chen then came through for the Foxes as he fired a shot through traffic in front of the net for an unassisted goal with 2:35 left in regulation to tie it up at 4-4 and force the overtime period.
That set the stage for the overtime heroics of Aleshin and Bai as they combined for the game-winning goal. They almost didn’t get the chance as the Crusaders had a breakaway opportunity at the start of overtime, but Fox Lane goalie Kevin Shiltz raced out of his net and dove to win a foot race and get to the puck to break up the opportunity. Shiltz finished with 14 saves in goal for the Foxes to get the win.
“We got better every period, and almost the entire third period and overtime we were in their zone and kept the pressure on and finished strong,” explained McGinn. “That line (Hearon-Aleshin-Bai) had four of our five goals and played a solid game. The first period was a tough one, and those breakaway goals they scored weren’t really Kevin’s fault and he played a really good game and kept us in it.”
With the victory Fox Lane improved to 3-6 overall as the Foxes continue to improve after an 0-4 start.