Connor Tait’s last-second goal gives No. 1 Gonzaga a tie against No. 2 Churchill
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Version 0 of 1. The final scoreboard at The Gardens Ice House in Laurel said No. 1 Gonzaga had just played to a 2-2 tie against No. 2 Churchill on Monday night. But one team leapt from its bench and mobbed a new hero, while the other fell face first to the ice in devastation. On the cusp of securing an elusive victory over the Washington area’s preeminent high school ice hockey team, the Bulldogs instead watched in horror as Gonzaga freshman Connor Tait authored a finish neither team saw coming. Following a timeout with 8.5 seconds remaining and playing on the penalty kill, the Eagles won the faceoff in their end and sophomore Matthew Massaro lifted the puck high into the air. When it landed and skipped past a defender’s leg, Tait skated toward the net and fired a slap shot that deflected off a Bulldogs players and scooted through the goalie’s five-hole. No buzzer sounded. The only noise came from Gonzaga’s bench shedding its gear and sprinting onto the ice in celebration. The clock read 0.0. “Watching Coach [Bill Slater] draw it up, half the team probably thought this will never happen, but we executed it perfectly,” Tait said. “I saw that puck bounce over his foot and all I could think was, ‘Goal.’ I came down the ice and, sure enough, it happened.” Churchill, which has never beaten Gonzaga (8-3-1) under Coach Ray McKenzie and coughed up a lead against the Eagles when the teams met in November, could hardly believe what happened. On Monday, the Bulldogs were a step faster to the puck and took a 1-0 first-period lead when senior Trevor Dixon got behind the Gonzaga defense and fired a wrist shot top shelf into the back of the net. But Tait evened the score by camping out in front in the second period and pouncing on a rebound as Gonzaga peppered Churchill goalie Kendall Wong (26 saves) with pucks. At one point in the third period, however, the Bulldogs (10-1-1) fired nine consecutive shots on net, including a goal by junior Andrew Kurapov on the lone power play of the game to take a 2-1 lead four minutes into the final frame. Gonzaga goalie Jalen Greene (27 saves) then made a crucial stop on a breakaway chance by forward John Taylor. The Bulldogs missed another opportunity to ice the game with 25 seconds left when forward Philip Satin hit the pipe on an empty net shot attempt. “If I said you tied Gonzaga [a few years ago], that would have been a miracle to tie them,” McKenzie said outside the locker room. “But the last couple years, if we don’t beat them, we’re at a point in the program where they’re just crushed. It’s like we lost the state championship in there.” |