The Clock Runs Out on Bishop Foley in Shrine's 5-4 Victory

TROY - Revenge was on the mind of the Bishop Foley hockey team heading into Saturday night's game against at the Troy Sports Arena.

But Royal Oak Shrine prevailed in a hard-hitting game with a 5-4 victory, earning a season sweep against the Bishop Foley Ventures. Shrine also defeated Foley 5-4 last month. The Shrine Knights won the game despite the fact it was not completed in 60 minutes. Because of a backlog of varsity games yet to be played, and an actual time limit imposed on teams, the game ended early with Foley having all the momentum.

The Knights started strong in the first period. Joe Nagle skated in directly on net after a giveaway and scored with his backhand for an unassisted goal. About 90 seconds later, Eric Lichtenberg pounced upon a rebound and drilled a goal off Foley goalie Patrick Gumbleton.

Shrine then extended its lead to 3-0 late in the first period when Dan Tresnak scored off a wrister with just one second left in the period. With that three-goal lead and two periods to play, it seemed as if the Knights would be able to pull away. But the defense began to struggle, said Shrine head coach A.J. Plaskey.

"We lost control there after having full control in the first period," Plaskey said. "We got a little frantic there but that will happen during a rivalry game."

The Venture comeback started when Foley senior Kaylan Taylor went-top shelf with a slapper past Shrine goalie Hugo Stange at 4:37 of the second.

Garrett Schilling scored less than two minutes later to make it 3-2 as both teams began to exchange harder checks. That's when Plaskey called timeout.

"I thought we had to go back to our plan, which was puck control and making better passes," Plaskey said.

Shrine regained its composure after the timeout and started to regain control of the tempo. A hooking penalty on Foley's Lenny Buscemi gave Shrine a power play and Jake Luddy took advantage with a slapshot from the point. Spencer Bald scored just over a minute later, 13:01 into the second period for a 5-2 Knights lead.

Foley made it interesting in the third period, when 10 penalties were called on the two teams. The Ventures' Jame Piec scored two in a two-minute span before the game was halted because of the time limit at the rink with another varsity game scheduled to start.

"Their momentum was stopped there and I guess we did a good job to hang on," Plaskely said. "It was a good win for us." Stange made 28 saves for Shrine. Nagle and Tresnak both had two points.

Shrine will play Clio at home on Tuesday.