It had the making of a classic trap game, and that's what transpired as Danville took Williamsport down.
Danville received a power-play goal from Jonathan Juliano, and Kyle McClure stopped 35 of 37 shots on goal as Danville escaped with a 4-2 win over the Outlaws at Airmen Pond at Bowman Field on Saturday night.
"The first time we played Danville they weren't very good," Williamsport coach Chris Firriolo said. "I kept preaching to the team this was a different club. They had some goaltending issues, but they got their goaltender back. He played a really good game."
McClure's best save of the night came when Chris Leveille broke through the Danville defense for a one-on-one chance to level the score at two goals apiece. Leveille went to McClure's pad side and was denined.
"Our goal was to win all three this weekend," Firriolo said. "It's a huge letdown. There are no excuses."
Martin Moucha added his second goal in as many nights to get the Outlaws off to a 1-0 advantage at the 18:50 mark of the first period.
Rob Sich nearly added his second in two nights when he broke away for a one-on-one against McClure. Sich missed on the first attempt, but pushed the second attempt through. The goal was waved off, though, after the net slipped off the moorings.
After going down by a goal, Danville stormed back when Chris Affinati and Justin Levac scored goals 21 seconds apart of each other to give Danville a 2-1 lead at the first break.
"We are our own worst enemy," Firriolo said. "We got on a little bit of a roll and this game would have really separated us from the bottom."
Down a goal to start the second, Matt Smyth tallied his 11th goal of the season when he slid a breakaway shot past McClure. It was Smyth's second breaaway of the period. His first attempt went wide after slipping past the defense at the blue line.
As good as the equalizing goal was for the hometown crowd, the joy quickly faded when Lee McClure put a soft shot by Michael DiLorenzo.
Firriolo felt the goal was soft enough to pull DeLorenzo for Friday's starter, Chris Whitley. The changes weren't done, though, Firriolo switched goalies twice in the final 30 seconds of the second period.
"Against a team like this we should score more than two goals," Firriolo said. "We were sloppy and didn't play a very good hockey game tonight."
