Kings Park/Commack Ice Hockey Defeats St. John's, 7-2

Matt Goldberg's  of the season helped KPC ice hockey to a 7-2 win over St. John the Baptist at The Rinx Sunday evening.

Thanks to a few injuries and obligations to travel hockey organizations, KPC was forced to play the game with just eight skaters, giving the otherwise hopeless Cougars a chance at their first victory of the season.

"It's things like this, that when we can come together as a team and overcome adversity, that is the reason why we're at the top of the league at this point in the season," said head coach Kurt Twining. "So hopefully things keep on rolling."

Brett Kaiser, who entered the game late, also chipped in with two goals for KPC (9-1-0).

Though St. John's Cougars (0-8-1) were outshot 20-8 in the first period, they managed to strike first when Matt O'Shaughnessy beat Mike Fazio three minutes into the game. O'Shaughnessy picked up the puck off the end boards and snuck it past Fazio inside the far post to give St. John's the lead.

Fazio settled in after that, not allowing another goal until late in the third period. In all, he stopped 24 of the 26 shots that came his way.

Cougars' goaltender Anthony Chille stood tall, withstanding an onslaught of scoring opportunities before Goldberg notched his first of the game with 4:32 remaining in the first period. Goldberg's toe-drag deke left the defender in the dust as he guided the puck past Chille on the backhand.

Chille stopped 38 of 45 shots faced, including an inordinate number of odd-man opportunities. "He absolutely kept them in the game," said Twining. "He came up big early and gave us a scare."

Kings Park struck again shortly after on a nifty "tic-tac-goal" set-up. While on the power play, Dillon Tamer curled off the boards towards the slot and found Brandon Amon open to Chille's left. Amon then directed a one-touch pass to a wide open Goldberg, who deposited it into a gaping net to give KPC a 2-1 advantage at 12:09.

"I can't say enough about what he did tonight," said Twining. "I asked Matt to step it up and he really brought his 'A' game tonight."

Goldberg scored again 2:08 into the second period, following a penalty to Josh Feldman for hooking. On the ensuing defensive zone faceoff, Goldman won it forward, powered past the Cougars defensemen and beat Chille on the backhand for his third of the contest.

He wasn't done just yet, though. At 7:37, he scored on another breakaway after taking an outlet pass from Michael Seres.

"He wasn't even supposed to be here tonight," said Twining. "So when he showed up we were very happy to see him because he's always an offensive force for us."

Tamer got his name back on the scoresheet less than two minutes later when he picked up his own rebound off a blocked shot in front and backhanded it past Chille to make it 5-1.

St. John's stopped a run of five consecutive goals as Brandon Tirelli converted a loose puck that squirted out to Fazio's right at 4:20.

Kaiser added his first of two power play goals as the Cougars became frustrated. While on the power play, he redirected a shot from Brandon Gaynor that found a way through Chille's five-hole just 21 seconds into the third period.

KPC was 4-for-8 on the power play.

"We talked to them a little about special teams tonight," said Twining. "All I asked them to do was to set up and pass that puck around. Don't be individuals. And when we did, we put pucks in the net.

Kaiser finished off the scoring again on the power play, taking a feed from Tamer at 5:09.