Black Knights Come From Behind for Another OT Victory

Friday, February 12

Waltham, MA

5:05 PM

Army West Point

9-5-1

Bentley

3-9-0

OT 1

Army West Point

Bentley

Daniel Haider looking for the puck during an Army hockey game against Sacred Heart on Feb. 9, 2021

Black Knights Come From Behind for Another OT Victory

February 12, 2021 | Hockey

Box Score

WALTHAM, Mass. – With a minute left in overtime, Daniel Haider went top shelf to send the Army West Point hockey team back to West Point with a 3-2 victory at Bentley on Friday night.

The Black Knights scored three unanswered goals to earn the win after going down 2-0 early in the contest. Army extends its unbeaten streak to seven games and has now earned league points in its last six games away from Tate Rink.

"Really proud of the guys tonight," head coach Brian Riley said. "Got down 2-0 and would have been easy to panic, but our guys have been in this situation a lot and they hung in there. It's tough coming on the road, but we are going to enjoy this one and we certainly know tomorrow will be another hard-fought battle with these guys back at West Point. "

Bentley struck first the final moments of the opening frame as Luke Santerno scored his first of two on the night with an assist to Michael Zuffante.

The Falcons took a 2-0 advantage midway through the second period with Santerno finding the back of the net for the second time. He was able to find the puck in a scrum in front of the net for his fourth of the season.

Army sliced the Bentley lead in half with Butte scoring his fourth goal in three games after terrific passing on the power play. Lincoln Hatten slid the puck down from the point to below the circles to Brett Abdelnour. He caught Butte circling in the slot and Butte connected on the one-timer and Army was back to within one heading into the final period.

In a crazy third period, the Black Knights tied the game with 8:10 on the clock, but at the time didn't know it. Colin Bilek fired a slapshot on a feed by John Zimmerman on the power play and the Black Knights celebrated quickly, but play continued.

At the next stoppage the referees took a look back at the video and determined that the puck got though the goalie's pads and trickled over the goal line, so Army tied the game at 2-2 on Bilek's league-leading 11th goal of the season and fifth on the power play. Anthony Firriolo was credited with an assist on the play as well.

The Black Knights couldn't find the net in the final moments of a five-minute major penalty and the game went into overtime, which set up Haider as the hero.

Thomas Farrell aggressively took the puck away from Bentley in the Army zone. He then spotted Haider, which created a 2-on-1 break for the Black Knights. Haider found the opening at the left circle and beat the netminder on his blocker side for the game winner.

"We had a great couple of shifts in OT and generated some awesome chances," Haider said. "I've been trying to have more of a shoot-first mentality this year so when I got the puck, I was looking to get to the net and I was fortunate enough to see that one go in. It was a special team win and everyone contributed tonight. Our team's resilience during this streak has been incredible and there was never a doubt that we were going to win that game."

HIGHLIGHTS AND NOTES:

Army is unbeaten in its last eight league games.
Army remains in the third spot in the league standings with 26 points.
The Black Knights are riding a seven-game unbeaten streak, which is the longest since the 2007-08 season.
Butte has now scored a goal in three-straight games and has four in his last three contests.
Army now has 15 power play goals on the season by seven different skaters with four coming in the last two games.
Bilek extended his point-scoring streak to seven games with his goal tonight and has at least a point in 11 of his last 12 games with 11 goals and five assists for 16 points.
Kozlowski is now unbeaten in his last nine starts.
Kozlowski has given up two or less goals in his last eight starts and Army is 7-0-1 in those games.
Tonight's victory was the second overtime win of the season for the Black Knights.

UP NEXT: The Black Knights return home for the second half of the home-and-home series against Bentley with a 7:05 pm puck drop at Tate Rink tomorrow night.