BELMONT – Much of the main focus Belmont boys hockey coach Tim Foley emphasised this week revolved round taking part in a easy, laborious, bodily recreation with quite a lot of construction for these playoffs.
What adopted within the Tenth-seeded Marauders’ Div. 1 state match first-round matchup in opposition to a red-hot No. 23 Chelmsford staff Thursday night time at Skip Viglirolo Rink was the most effective all-around efficiency they’ve placed on the ice all season.
With a dominant forecheck and fast breakouts, Belmont managed play from begin to end en path to a 4-0 win over the Lions. Peter Grace tallied two objectives inside a 44-14 shot benefit, largely aided by a spectacular effort on particular groups to restrict two photographs on web via 4 penalty kills.
Chelmsford nonetheless put just a few high quality bids on Marauders senior goalie Greg Federico amid a 14-save shutout, and sophomore goalie Mark Bierwirth starred reverse him with 40 saves. It wasn’t sufficient to maintain Belmont from shifting on, although, because it will get set for a rematch of final 12 months’s playoff loss to No. 7 Xaverian on Sunday at midday.
“That was our most complete game,” Foley stated. “I thought our forecheck was really good, I thought our structure was good. We kept hemming Chelmsford, they’re a good team, they have some skilled players who can move the puck.”
For as robust as Belmont got here out by producing a bevy of turnovers at Chelmsford’s blue line and permitting simply 5 photographs on Federico, it solely held a 1-0 lead by the tip of the primary interval. Shay Donahue’s objective got here on simply seven photographs because the Lions saved the affair shut.
When three penalties within the second interval pressured the Marauders to cowl 4 consecutive minutes of penalty kill, and 50 complete seconds of a 5-on-3 drawback, the Lions had a great opportunity to cowl the little floor it misplaced, too. But penalty kill and total protection are two of Belmont’s major calling playing cards, and permitting only one shot on web in that point solely fueled it.
“It’s a dangerous situation to get yourself and the team into when you take those penalties … you just can’t take those penalties,” Foley stated. “But having said that, we practice our man-down a lot. … After we killed those penalties – we have about five players that play up front on the man-down, and we try to use three D on the man-down. Then we can get our other guys out there and they have a ton of energy, they’re able to kind of get the momentum back pretty quick.”
Right on the tail finish of the final penalty, Grace registered his first objective for a 2-0 lead with simply over 4 minutes left within the body. Shots on web ramped as much as finish the second interval with a 16-4 benefit, and Belmont carried that over into the third. Cam Fici (objective, help) and Grace every tallied a rating inside a 21-shot remaining body, sealing off the win.
Allowing simply 14 photographs total on Federico, who’s completely suited to cease way more in a shutout, performed an enormous half in a playoff win that might by no means get previous.
“It’s just ecstatic, every day with these boys is just amazing,” Grace stated. “Another day, another practice, another game is all we can ask for. … This game specifically, we were able to keep them to the outside and definitely hem them in their zone instead of have them in our zone. Our defense all year has been our strong suit.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com