By: Aidan Joly
In only their first game together, Saratoga’s new line carried them to victory.
The Saratoga Blue Streaks defeated the CBA Brothers on Wednesday night at Weibel Avenue Ice Rink by a score of 5-2 in Saratoga’s inaugural league game of the season.
The new line of Matt Shamberger, Jake Fauler and Jonathan Luse produced results quickly into the game as Shamberger scored his first goal of the season at 5:15 on a one-timer, making the game 1-0 Saratoga. The Brothers quickly answered off the face-off, getting one past Saratoga netminder Drew Rafferty just seven seconds later to tie it up at one each.
“I think what happened was we were still celebrating after the face-off. I don’t think (Rafferty) was ready for it,” Saratoga head coach Dave Torres said.
Saratoga did not falter as they scored another goal just over a minute later, this time from Ryan Robens, making it three goals combined in a time span of 1:08.
At the beginning of the second period, Saratoga turned the one-goal lead into a two-goal lead just 51 seconds into the frame on a score from Jonathan Luse. This would be his first of two on the night, part of a four-point game for Luse.
“Our line’s been playing well together. A lot of us grew up playing together in youth hockey, and we try to continue that here,” Luse said.
CBA forward Ryan Dollar would bring it back to a one-goal margin less than three minutes later to make the score 3-2 early in the second period. The score would be 4-2 in favor of the Blue Streaks in the final minute of the second period on Luse’s second goal of the evening, this time on a power-play.
Saratoga scored once again in the third period in the final minutes with a goal from Jake Fauler who got an assist on all fourof Saratoga’s previous goals.
“I like the line right now. We all have special abilities and we’re all using them to the best of our ability,” Fauler said of the new starting line, which was on the ice for four of the five Blue Streak goals Wednesday.
This comes as a much-needed win for Saratoga as they lost their first two games of the season last weekend to St. Joe’s and Mamaroneck, making their record 0-2 after the first weekend of the season.
“We get a big two points against CBA at our home, it’s huge,” Torres said about getting the first win of the season out of the way.
Saratoga is now 1-2 after the win and 1-0 in the league. They will play again on Friday with a home game against Massena at Weibel Avenue Rink. That game will start at 6:45 PM.
With the loss, CBA falls to 2-2-1 on the season, and 2-1 in the league. They will be back in action on Friday against North Rockland. That game will be at RPI’s Houston Field House, with a start time of 7 PM.
STATS:
Saratoga:
Jonathan Luse: 2 goals, 2 assists
Jake Fauler: 1 goal, 4 assists
Ryan Robens: 1 goal, 1 assist
Matt Shamberger: 1 goal
Eric Jess: 1 assist
CBA:
Andrew Mesick: 1 goal
Ryan Dollar: 1 goal
Hunter Pemrick: 1 assist
Goaltending:
Saratoga (Drew Rafferty): 10/12, 83% saved
CBA (Brandon Mohrhoff): 21/26, 81% saved