Now, they have the opportunity to win one of the biggest games in their careers this morning when they play for a USA Hockey Tier II national championship in Pittsburgh.
The Dynamo squad also knows how to win in overtime.
The team needed an extra session to advance to the New York State Amateur Hockey Association final and won the title and a berth in the USA Hockey national tournament with a double-overtime victory.
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Clifton Park needed one overtime session to defeat the Hollydell Hurricanes, 4-3, in the national quarterfinal to advance to Saturday night's national semifinal. Saratoga Springs skater and Co-captain Chris Huck buried the puck with 1:44 left in the extra session to advance to the semifinal against Summit Plastics.
"We played solid this morning," Dynamo coach Brad Shaver said. "They (Hollydell) were putting to it to us in the third, but we kept to our defensive system and hung in there. They worked hard this morning."
On Saturday night, Clifton Park went to its go-go scorer, Drew Foster, not once, but twice to put away Summit Plastics.
Foster scored the go-ahead goal with 2:47 left in the third period, giving the Dynamo its first lead of the contest from an assist by Co-captain Anthony Delzotto.
Then an unthinkable, unheard of, and possibly unimaginable thing happened.
With 1/10th of a second left in regulation and Clifton Park ahead, Summit pushed the puck up ice and crashed the net against Dynamo goaltender Brendan Wagner. With Wagner on his back, players crowding the net with time appearing to expire and a penalty shot was called by the referee at the net against Clifton Park.
"If you were to write this one no one would believe it," Shaver said. "No one is allowed to cover the puck in your crease. It was covered by a player, but not a goalie and we had to play out the last 10 seconds left.
"We had iced the puck with eight seconds left and we shouldn't have done that," Shaver said. "It gave them a chance back in our end."
Summit's Michael Ericson converted the sub-second penalty shot, beating Wagner on his glove side, drilling the puck into the top right hand corner, sending the contest into 10-minute overtime. The two squads battled for another 10 minutes of sudden death play, but failed end the deadlock.
The ice was resurfaced, allowing both teams to rest and then return to finally determine a victory where Foster scored his third game-winning overtime goal in the post season. He scored both extra-session goals in the state tournament.
"Chris Huck has been tremendous for us all year," Shaver said. "He's one of our captains and I had a few words with him before we left last night on the bus. He played a great game all the way around.
"I talked to Drew after our pre-game meal and what else can be said about his play?" Shaver said.
The Dynamo played a lackluster game Friday night, lost to Wellesley, 3-2, causing them to drop from a No. 2 seed to a No. 3 and have to fight through the gauntlet of Hollydell and Summit to get to today's national title game.
"Those two teams are ranked No. 3 and No. 4 in the nation," Shaver said. "To knock out those two teams today was unbelievable. I knew we could get it done; we had to knock off the top two teams. I knew we had a chance."
That chance continues this morning as Shaver will again utilize the full capabilities of his bench, something that he hasn't had available to him all year due to injuries.
"I used 11 out of our 12 forwards consistently and that helps," Shaver said. "I feel I can use 11 or 12 again tomorrow and that's a big part of it. I used five 'D' (defensemen) today and that's big.
"I think we have some great leadership and depth," Shaver said. "We are by far the youngest team in the tournament. That's been noted by others and they have commented about the tremendous job we have done."
The Dynamo were in danger of being eliminated from the tournament early Saturday morning after giving up the lead to Hollydell on two different occasions.
Huck opened up the scoring for Clifton Park with the opening goal a 3:47 from assists by Ryan Kangas and Conrad Bernard. Hollydell knotted the contest at one apiece with 2:12 remaining on a goal by Kyle Poderis.
Clifton Park went ahead again in the second period on Jordan Bobrow's goal at 15:48 from an assist by Tyler Hynes. The Hurricanes answered again with a game-tying tally with 26 seconds left in the second, scored by Derek Tarpine.
The day was almost over when Hollydell's Conall Gukin scored his go-ahead goal at 8:28 of the third, putting the Dynamo behind for the first time, 3-2.
Hynes managed to keep the dreams of a national championship alive for Clifton Park when he scored the game-tying goal with 1:35 left in the third from an assist by Bobrow, leading up to Huck's game-winning heroics in the extra session.
Clifton Park will face the Dallas Stars at 11 a.m. in the Clearview Arena to determine the USA Hockey Tier II 18-and-under national champions.
Clifton Park Dynamo 3, Summit Plastics 2 (2 OT)
Second period
Summit Plastics 0 1 1 0 0 - 2
Clifton Park Dynamo 0 0 2 0 1 - 3
Goalie saves: Summit Plastics, Ryan St. Amour, 37 saves. Clifton Park, Brendan Wagner, 56 saves.
Clifton Park 4, Hollydell 3 (OT)
First period
Clifton Park 1 1 1 1 - 4
Hollydell 1 1 1 0 - 3
Goalie saves: Clifton Park, Brendan Wagner, 29 saves. Hollydell, Kyle Van Austen, 23 saves.
