‘Down but not out’: Essex falls 2-1 vs Hanover

The Essex 73’s fell short once again to the Hanover Barons, losing 2-1 on Sunday night for their second consecutive loss in the series. “I told the guys that’s a loss that happened but you don’t have to hang your head,” said Essex head coach Tony Piroski after the game. “To a man we all battled hard. We had our chances. There was gonna be a break or a bounce one way or another and they got it.”

After two scoreless periods, it was Sam Barrett who finally broke the deadlock, scoring his 5th goal of the series at 6:29 of the third period. With the 73’s pushing for an equalizer, Hanover sealed the game when Mark McIntosh netted his 25th of the playoffs into the empty net, providing the Barons with a 2-0 series lead.

“This is the kinda game I wanted to play tonight was one of those low scoring one goal games. It was that.” Piroski said.

Essex got one late on a goal by Matthew Crawford with just 23 seconds left, but despite a last-ditch effort, they couldn’t break into the Hanover zone to get the game-tying shot off.

The Barons now hold a 2-0 series lead as the 73’s look to regroup for the next matchup.

“I’m not upset with my guys,” Piroski told Powerplay Sports. “That’s a good team (Hanover). It coulda went either way and unfortunately it didn’t go our way but our breaks are coming.”

“We’ll just continue to play hard, do the things we do and hopefully we’ll get a bounce or two on Wednesday (Game 3 in Hanover) and get back 2-1.”.