ELMIRA, N.Y. - October 4, 2012 - An enthusiastic crowd witnessed some nailbiting action at First Arena in the annual Blue-White Game on Thursday night. A late goal by Brandon Blandina propelled White to a 5-4 win.

 

The game featured two 25-minute periods with a mixture of five-on-five, four-on-four, and three-on-three play. In the opening stanza the White team scored a pair of goals in quick succession to build its lead. Luke Frey opened the action with a rebound goal and was followed by Jimmy Martin tapping home a feed from Alec Kirschner with 10:30 left in the first. Just over three minutes later Rob Bellamy lifted a shot in for the Blue team to make it 2-1. White, however, came roaring back with tallies from Yegor Bezuglyy and Jean Bourbeau to extend the advantage to 4-1. That was how the score stood when the first came to a close.

The second started with some nastiness as Jarrett Rush from the Blue squad and Corey Bellamy from the White got into a fight. Rush's effort seemed to spur his team as Blue netted three straight goals to tie the game. Andrew Rowe started the comeback with a diving backhand goal with just under 90 seconds gone by. Then Kevin McCarey took over and scored a pair. The first came on a penalty shot with 8:30 to play and then he netted one from in tight off of a rebound with 5:40 left.

It looked as though the score would stay tied and leave the shootout to determine the winner, but with the teams skating three-on-three Jordon Southorn hit an open Blandina for the tap-in winner.

Blue had the advantage in shots 28 to 26 but the goaltending tandem of Nick Niedert and Joe Spagnoli helped White come away victorious.