Game 8 vs. Bears
Game 8: 9/24/04 vs. Bridgewater Bears
The Colonials skated into Bridgewater Sports Arena for a Friday night matchup against their arch-rival Bridgewater Bears in a non-league contest. Both teams wanted to show what they can do as they will be seeing each other twice more during the regular season. With a big crowd on hand, both teams came out strong as they exchanged chance after chance with both goalies coming up big. One particular save really kept things close as Geoff Durham made a pad stop and the rebound went right to a Bear in front of the net and Durham came sliding across with his stick and stopped the second shot from his stomach. The crowd cheered as the first period ended 0-0. The second would open up a little bit as Brian Dixon took the puck through the neutral zone at the end of his shift and gave it over to Jay Sogliuzzo, who put a nice pass through a defenseman and found Dave Magnollay crashing the net who buried a shot off the goalie for the first goal. The celebration would end quickly however as the Bears would come down the ice on the next shift and score a quick one to tie the game. They would continue to roll from there and not only get the go ahead goal to make it 2-1 on a breakdown in front of the Colonials net but then get another goal as Buzz Sobieski and Matt Daugherty were called for questionable penalties to put the team down 5 on 3. The Bears would score and they were now ahead 3-1. The Colonials would not give up however and had a few 2 on 1s that the Bears goalie would make saves on. They would finally cash in however as team captain Mike Formichella took the puck in the zone himself and forced a shot on goal. Corey DeFranco would get the rebound and put it home past a sprawling goalie. Things were looking up until the Colonials couldn't get out of their zone with some weak passing and gave the puck up to a Bear right in front of the goalie and he scored on his own rebound to put his team ahead 4-2. It was getting late and the clock was against the visitors but they would create some pressure down low and DeFranco would put his second of the game home with help from Daugherty and it was 4-3 and down to the wire. Colonials called timeout and set up the play. There was a huge scramble with 30 seconds left and bodies and the puck was flying everywhere but they just couldn't put it home and that's where the game would end. An exciting matchup where the Colonials couldn't cash in on their 32 shots. They now drop to 4-2-2 in preseason. They move on to face the Jr Phantoms AAA Major team in a home and home series next weekend.
Magnollay (Sogliuzzo, Dixon)
DeFranco (Formichella)
DeFranco (Daugherty)
Geoff Durham: 16 saves (4 goal allowed)
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