Fair Lawn hockey comeback falls short

MONTCLAIR – For the second time in as many games, the Fair Lawn hockey team had found itself down by two goals before making a comeback. While the Cutters had completed the rally last week against Clifton with a win, lightning would not strike twice.

After tying the game at 3-all early in the third period, Fair Lawn was victimized by two goals in a span of 94 seconds as they dropped a 5-3 decision to Paramus at the Montclair Holiday Invitational Tuesday night at Clary Anderson Arena.

"We scored to make it 3-3 and I thought we were going to get some momentum," Cutters head coach Brack Healy said. "And then they came down and (Mark) Apidopoulos made a nice move around our defenseman and scored that fourth goal. That was definitely tough."

Apidopoulos single-handedly put a stop to the Fair Lawn (4-4) momentum. The Spartans' junior forward found an opening on the right side to elude a defender, deked and then ripped the tie-breaking goal into the net with 11:19 remaining.

"I was by myself, I didn't see anyone open," said Apidopoulos, noting he rarely has this type of open-ice chance. "I saw a hole right through (the defenseman's) legs. I put the puck through his legs, deked the goalie and things worked out well."

Already stunned by the goal, Apidopoulos and the Spartans (4-3-1) struck again moments later when he scored off a Fair Lawn turnover for his third goal of the game.

"I think that (first) goal was tough and before we could even regroup they scored again to make it 5-3 on a miscommunication," Healy said. "I think individual mistakes cost us, not team play. I thought we played very, very well."

Down 3-1 early in the second period, Fair Lawn took control of the game, keeping the puck nearly exclusively in the offensive zone. Kevin Carney cut the deficit to one when he buried a rebound on the power play with two minutes left in the second period.

The momentum carried over into the third as John Polyak tied the game 106 seconds into the period.

"It's the same thing we did against Clifton," Healy said. "We found ourselves down 2-0 and 3-1 then came back to win 6-4. It's definitely a resilient bunch. They're a great group of kids, they work hard they never give up."

Jim Prigge, who assisted on the two goals which tied it up, scored the first goal of the game for Fair Lawn in the opening period. Dan Prigge made 14 saves in net.

Danny Crandell made 20 saves between the pipes for Paramus in the win. Pete Reveille and Chris Gangler also scored goals for the Spartans.

The Cutters' next game in the Invitational will be Thursday against Montclair at 6 p.m.