Fermi-Enfield Gains the Upper Hand on Tigers, 4-2

The Fermi-Enfield hockey team had a Tiger by the tail Saturday, but a lucky bounce enabled the home team to capitalize and ultimately prevail.

Visiting Daniel Hand of Madison gave Fermi-Enfield all it could handle, outworking and outshooting their hosts through the first two periods. The Division II Tigers held the lead twice, and the teams were deadlocked 2-2 near the midway point of the third period.

Suddenly, a seemingly harmless flip-in by Adam Macsata took an odd bounce and eluded Hand goaltender Dan Tagliarini, giving Fermi-Enfield its first lead of the afternoon. An insurance goal by Cam Korona with 2:49 to play lifted the home team to a hard-fought 4-2 victory.

"We won an ugly one," Fermi-Enfield coach Frank Genovese said. "I guess I'd rather win ugly than lose pretty. We needed the win after losing  a few in a row, and we reacted well to a little bit of adversity in the whole game. We did not play our best, but we definitely made some plays in the third."

Hand jumped to a 1-0 lead on a first-period goal by Joe Deane, but Macsata tied it on a power play less than four minutes later.

Mitch Brown put the Tigers back in front with a power play goal at 6:14 of the middle period, but Fermi-Enfield tied it when Korona scored just 24 seconds before the second intermission.

In the third period, both teams played intense, evenly-matched hockey until Macsata's fluke goal at 7:13, his second of the contest. Korona then iced the game with his second goal, converting a beautiful slide pass from Avery Boissy.

The Tigers pulled Tagliarini in favor of a sixth attacker in the final minute, but Fermi-Enfield goaltender Aaron Lickwar turned aside several shots to preserve the victory.

Lickwar finished with 31 saves, while Tagliarini stopped 18 shots.

Both teams are back in action Wednesday. Fermi-Enfield (4-4) hosts Conard at 3:50 p.m., while Daniel Hand (3-3) entertains North Haven at 6 p.m.

Scoring Summary

Daniel Hand
Goals: Joe Deane, Mitch Brown
Assists: J. Deane, Ben Solin, Jarrett Rennie, Mike Deane

Fermi-Enfield
Goals: Adam Macsata (2), Cam Korona (2)
Assists: Avery Boissy (2), Evan Boissy, Brendan Lemire, Nick Varner, Jim Sayers