Duke Athletics
No. 2 Virginia Nearly Overcomes Seven-Goal Deficit, Falls at No. 3 Duke 15-14
The streak continues.
On Saturday, No. 2 Virginia fell to No. 3 Duke for the second time this season and the Cavaliers have now lost to Duke 18-straight times in the regular season dating back to 2004. This time, Virginia trailed by seven in the second quarter and cut the lead to one with 1:03 remaining. The Cavaliers had multiple opportunities to tie the game, but a save by William Helm with seconds remaining earned Duke a 15-14 win over Virginia in Durham, North Carolina.
The star of the game for the Cavaliers was goalie Matthew Nunes who had a career-high 17 saves. Nunes posted a .667 save percentage in the second half. Offensively, Payton Cormier led the way with four goals, while Connor Shellenberger, back from injury, registered one goal and two assists.
The game began with multiple turnovers by the Cavaliers, allowing Duke to jump out to a 3-1 lead. Brennan O'Neill, who had nine points against the Cavaliers two weeks ago, was guarded by Quentin Matsui as opposed to Cade Saustad. This time, O'Neill finished with only two goals and an assist.
The opening goal for the Cavaliers was a combination of the two Canadians, with Thomas McConvey finding Payton Cormier. The goal was set up by a caused turnover by Cole Kastner that helped give the Cavaliers life. Kastner finished with six ground balls and two caused turnovers.
The early Duke advantage was fueled by Jake Naso winning the first four faceoffs against Petey LaSalla. After going 20/34 against Naso in the previous matchup, LaSalla was just 11/32 and struggled to figure out the No. 6 faceoff specialist in the country.
After a goal from Peter Garno for the Hoos, Andrew McAdorey scored for Duke after Virginia miscommunicated on a pick. The goal sparked a three-goal run for the Blue Devils to make it 6-2 at the end of the first quarter. Virginia was out of sorts early on, with five turnovers, and trailed in the ground ball battle 13-6.
Cormier opened up the scoring in the second quarter. In response, Duke began to run away with the game with a four-goal run to make it 10-3. Virginia was sloppy in the second quarter with three penalties and had no answer for the Duke offense. With a minute left in the first half, Jeff Conner stopped the bleeding for the Hoos to make it 10-4 at the half.
Duke dominated all facets of the game in the first half, winning the faceoff battle 11-4 and the ground ball battle 21-16 in the first half. Additionally, Virginia committed many costly turnovers in transition, which hurt the Cavaliers' ability to find a rhythm on offense. Shellenberger also could not find a way past Kenny Brower, who limited him to just one assist in the first half. The bright spot for the Cavaliers was Matthew Nunes, who picked up seven first-half saves.
As for the Blue Devils, using their speed in transition, they overwhelmed Virginia on offense, led by Brennan O’Neill and Dyson Williams, who each had two goals and an assist in the first half.
Virginia then opened up the second half as a completely different team.
As the shot clock ticked down on their opening possession, Cormier netted a goal and Schutz followed suit after that to cut the lead to four. Defensively, Nunes picked up four-straight saves to keep the Blue Devils offense at bay. The fourth save led to a transition goal from Connor Shellenberger to make it 10-7 after a quick outlet pass to Cole Kastner, who assisted the goal.
Scott Bower was then penalized for a late hit, which killed Virginia’s momentum. The penalty eventually led to a goal by Charles Balsamo to make it 11-7 and capped the Virginia run. On the ensuing faceoff, Naso beat LaSalla to set up a McAdorey goal, shunting the Cavaliers momentum before Schutz stopped the run making it 12-8.
To begin the fourth quarter, McAdorey scored his third of the day after a defensive lapse that left him open on the doorstep. On the ensuing faceoff, Xander Dickson fired a backhanded goal after scooping up a ground ball in transition.
With nine minutes left, Evan Zinn scored a coast-to-coast goal to cut the lead to three. Nunes then made a massive save before an offside violation led to an open net goal for the Blue Devils to make it 14-10. In response, Dickson found Schutz, cutting the lead to three again before Owen Caputo fired a goal on the doorstep to make it 15-11.
LaSalla then won back-to-back faceoffs setting up goals from Noah Chizmar and Cormier to make it a two-goal game. Naso then won the faceoff, and Duke did an excellent job draining the clock before Virginia retained possession with less than two minutes left.
With 1:03 left, Xander Dickson netted a goal to make it 15-14 after a crossfield pass from Schutz. On the ensuing faceoff, LaSalla won the faceoff, but a turnover sent the ball the other way. Nunes then stuffed O’Neill on the doorstep to give the Hoos one final chance. With seconds left, Cormier had an opportunity on the doorstep, but William Helm saved the potential game-tying goal to give Duke a 15-14 win.
The Cavaliers had opportunities to come back, but continually hurt themselves with mistakes such as an offside penalty, a late hit, and allowing multiple goals on the doorstep, which allowed Duke to hold on to the win.
In the second half, Nunes made ten saves on 15 shots to allow the Cavaliers to work back into the game after trailing by as many as seven goals. Nunes finished with 17 saves, a career-high. If Nunes can continue to play at that level, the Cavaliers have a good chance of making a championship push come May. In order to do that, though, UVA will have to get off to better starts in big games, as slow starts have been the common denominator in each of Virginia's three losses this season.
Virginia (8-3, 2-2 ACC) will look to bounce back next Saturday in Charlottesville against No. 17 Syracuse at 2 pm.
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