By By Dave Diamond

While talks of “bubble bursting” are not due to start until later this month, the Pride Ice Hockey Club had its own dreams shattered Sunday. The two unbeaten teams in the Metropolitan Collegiate Hockey Conference (MCHC) went head-to-head in the championship game, and once again, SUNY Albany got the better of the Pride.

This 5-3 loss hurt much more than the 5-4 overtime shootout loss the Pride suffered to the Great Danes during the regular season.

“I feel bad for the seniors,” head coach John Ferrara said. “And I told the guys coming back to remember the feeling so it doesn’t happen again.”

For Albany, the win completed an enormously successful season, finishing a combined 18-0-1-0 in the regular season and playoffs.

However, this championship would not come easy. The capacity crowd at The Rinx in Hauppauge was in for quite the treat between the two powerhouses of the MCHC. Early on, it seemed neither team took chances in the offensive end, looking to stay mistake-free until opportunity came along.

Midway through the first, play finally began opening up. The first big chance went to the Great Danes, but Pride goaltender George Lorenz was up to the challenge, making a beautiful glove save to stop a wrist shot from the left circle headed for the top right corner of the net. It was one of 41 saves for Lorenz, who was up against the leagues’ second-ranked offense, just behind the Pride.

Suddenly, the momentum switched when Pride captain Brian Ferrara would go to the penalty box and Albany capitalized on the power play, the first of three man-advantage goals. At 13:58 of the first, Albany’s Steven Rueda smacked a rebound past Lorenz to make it 1-0, giving the Danes the pivotal first goal.

The mix of bad luck and inexperience took its toll on the Pride, which making its first finals appearance. The Pride was on the power play with less than four minutes to play in the first, and nearly tied the game.

Junior Steve Wagner blasted a shot from the point that beat Albany goalie Frank Guiffre, but loudly clanged off the crossbar and bounced away. Only one minute later, Lorenz suffered a brain freeze when Albany’s Joshua Charland flipped a weak shot that was deflected and flew towards Lorenz. The goaltender waved and missed with his glove, while the puck fluttered slowly into the net.

Ferrara tried to answer almost immediately after the ensuing face-off, but was robbed by a sprawling Guiffre as Ferrara had a step on the Danes’ defense. The period ended with Albany leading 2-0, and the Pride reeling.

The Pride came out with added intensity looking to get even in the second period, but a little too much aggression, which resulted in freshman Vin Kelly taking a penalty. Albany struck again with the man advantage at 2:50 when Great Danes’ John O’Hara made it 3-0. Desperation began to hit the Pride.

The turning point of the game would come at 5:15 when the Pride would receive a 5-on-3 power play for nearly a full two minutes. Because of Guiffre, they came up empty handed.

“There’s nothing more to say,” Brian Ferrara said. “Their goaltender stood on his head, he was huge.”

The Pride defense, which had been rock solid all year, was unable to contain Albany long enough to mount an attack. When the Pride finally beat Guiffre on a goal by Rob Gleckler at 10:44 of the second, Albany countered on a two-on-one only two minutes later to regain a three-goal lead. The remainder of the period remained scoreless, thanks in large part to the outstanding effort by Guiffre, who saved his best for last.

The third period began exactly as the Pride wanted. Gleckler fired a wrist shot that beat Guiffre short-side only 17 seconds in to make it 4-2. With the crowd hoping for a potential comeback, they peppered Albany’s goaltender with shot after shot. Guiffre stood tall against every scoring chance, robbing Pride snipers Chris Hogan and Matt Orenstein on the doorstep with scrambling glove saves and good positioning.

Eventually, the wall broke the Pride down, and Albany’s Andrew Dwyer iced the game with a goal at 6:38.

Emotions were high for the Great Danes, as they counted dow n to their title, while Guiffre, later named tournament MVP, would allow only one more goal. The goal, while meaningless on the scoreboard, was the “passing of the torch” type for those close to the Pride. In his final game, Ferrara took an offensive zone face-off and powered to the net, setting-up Kelly for his fifth goal of the tournament. The aggressive face-off has become a trademark of graduating Ferrara’s game, and the assist to the promising freshman was a symbol of the coming together of the Pride this year.

“This season was the first step of a major turnaround for this team,” the captain said. “There’s no reason why they can’t have the same type of season next year, maybe better.”

If the Pride expects to have such a successful season, it must do it without the senior core of Hogan, Orenstein, Ferrara, and defenseman Brian Manolakes. However, with exciting young players like Kelly, defenseman Tom Germano, leaders Joe Balabous and Steve Wagner, and Lorenz and Chris Dasti in goal, John Ferrara sees good things to come.

“There’s such fire power and potential here. I expect huge things from them,” he said.

Despite the loss, there was some good news. Ferrara was named assistant captain of the All-Conference team, and will play along with Orenstein, Manolakes and Kelly. Hogan, who led the team in points, was a notable snub.

Nevertheless, Manolakes singled out the team first attitude every player on the Pride had to take this team through its most successful season in history.

“We had heart like you wouldn’t believe,” he said.

The Pride´s Chris Hogan sets to take the face-off. The Pride, however, now faces the offseason after season-ending loss to Albany. (Dave Diamond/ The Chronicle)