Game 5 vs. Avalanche
Game 5: 9/18/04 vs. Ice House Avalanche
The Saturday night game was a good one and a matchup that may cause some heat during the regular season. Two teams favored to run the NJYHL North this year faced off in the final game of the qualifying rounds of the tournament. The Colonials knew they had to turn it up as the Avs consistently have a good team every year. Eric Visnovsky got the start in goal and he was up to the task as he made save after save to start the game as the Avalanche brought the attack early and often. They would strike first blood with a breakaway goal but the Colonials would fight back with one of their own on the power play by Steve Genualdi to make it 1-1 after 1 period. It was a deadlock and a defensive struggle as both teams were fighting hard. All the Avalanche needed was a tie and they would be automatically into the playoff brackets for the tournament. If the Colonials didn't win this they would have to qualify as a wild card. You could almost sense they understood the urgency as Mike Formichella did a great job of keeping it in the zone and found Ryan Cassidy on the other side of the blue line. He had a gaping hole of ice in front of him and decided to take advantage of it. He walked in as far as they would let him and fired a shot over the goalie to put his team ahead. The bench erupted as the defenseman scored the go ahead goal. It was all for naught however as the Avalanche set up in the zone with about 5 minutes left in the game. They fired a puck that had eyes on it and found its way through about 4 pairs of legs before it slid just past Visnovsky in the goal to tie the game at 2-2. The Colonials were buzzing at the end of the game but just couldn't put it home and that's how the game would end. They quickly rushed out of the locker room to see if they seeded as a wild card. A sigh of relief went through the crowd as a 7th seed was written next to their name. They would play the Quakers in the quarterfinals tomorrow morning.
Genualdi (unassisted)
Cassidy (Formichella)
Eric Visnovsky: 24 saves (2 goals allowed)
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