Chrome would get goals from Matt Gaudet, Jesse King, and Justin Guterding, while Waterdogs would get another from McArdle shooting at a tough angle, and Drew Simoneau, who split time at the stripe with Jake Withers, scoring off a faceoff. It was a 5-3 game after one.

The next two quarters were strictly the property of Chrome. John Galloway put on a show in this time period, shutting out Waterdogs for 28 minutes of game time and finishing the evening with 13 saves and 57 percent of shots stopped. In the offensive end, it was all about Jordan Wolf’s generosity: the veteran attackman compiled four assists in the first half and would finish the night without a goal. Chrome would get second goals from Gaudet, Guterding and King in the second quarter to bring the tally to 8-4 Chrome at halftime.

The third quarter was much of the same. Chrome would get goals from MacIntosh on a helper from Brendan Kavanaugh, Ranagan on a rocket stepdown, and Will Haus unassisted. The team in black led by eight going into the fourth quarter, and would quickly extended the lead off of a bizarre two-point goal from Kavanaugh; the Hofstra product appeared to pass it to Gaudet, who whiffed on the ball, allowing it to trickle into the back of the net.

At this point, with the scoreboard reading 13-3, Waterdogs switched out Charlie Cipriano for rookie Matt DeLuca in goal, and from there, everything started to click for the Dogs. McArdle would storm straight to the cage for a hattrick, get his fourth of the night minutes later, and Ben McIntosh finished one of his own. After Steven DeNapoli buried a two-bomb to bring his team within five, the comeback seemed feasible. 

It was almost to be too. Simoneau scored again off the faceoff, followed quickly by McArdle notching his fifth score of the night. Connor Kelly then ripped a two-pointer to miraculously get the Waterdogs to within one point of Chrome.