ARLINGTON – Hosting the loaded Peter Doherty division within the 2nd Annual Ed Burns Coffee Pot Tournament, the Arlington boys hockey crew added slightly little bit of suspense to the house crowd Sunday afternoon.
As a part of a string of shut affairs between a number of the greatest public college groups within the state, Drew Fecteau buried the game-winning purpose on an influence play in additional time to propel the Spy Ponders (10-2-2) to a 3-2 win over Braintree (6-4-1). The senior’s tally simply 56 seconds into the additional body accomplished a gritty comeback by which Arlington trailed by two scores getting into the ultimate seven minutes of regulation, pairing with Stephanos Sotiropoulos’ game-tying rating to beat an in any other case spectacular effort in web from Wamps goalie Ryan Cochrane (23 saves).
Having to battle again from Braintree’s two-goal second interval wasn’t precisely a part of the sport plan for Arlington head coach John Messuri, and he admits the necessity for late-game heroics are beginning to stack up during the last a number of video games. He’ll take the victory towards high competitors for now, however is hoping to offer star goalie Jake Davies (28 saves) a break from all however saving one other win transferring ahead.
“It’s good to come back, I think Braintree is a really good team,” Messuri stated. “I thought they maybe deserved a better fate the way they played compared to the way we played. We just down the stretch made a couple of plays, that was the difference. I think overall, it is what it is, but they deserved a better fate. We can’t keep playing like that.”
Braintree got here out firing on all cylinders to provide a bonus in scoring alternatives, making the most of a gradual begin from the Spy Ponders to construct up steam. Davies excelled in web via most of a 17-shot second interval, however not sufficient to forestall targets from Andrew Gaffney and Anthony Cappello for a 2-0 deficit getting into the third.
Cochrane performed nice reverse Davies, not permitting a lot till Arlington lastly acquired it going over the ultimate eight minutes of motion. Liam Gore completed a rebound with 6:13 left to chop the deficit, and Sotiropoulos’ shot from the purpose in some way acquired via Cochrane’s preliminary save for the 2-2 tie about 4 minutes later. Arlington took benefit of continued stellar play from Davies as Braintree outshot it 30-26, and a Wamps penalty whereas the Spy Ponders killed their very own infraction late within the third rolled over into additional time.
Fecteau made a fantastic transfer across the crease with extra room to skate, flipping within the winner to advance within the tourney.
Between this end, Hingham’s 3-1 win over Canton, Belmont’s 2-0 win over Marshfield and a late slate between Wellesley and Reading, Messuri is greater than happy with the event.
“This is great,” he stated. “For me, loving high school hockey like I do, this is like Field of Dreams to see all the top publics coming into this rink here. Legendary rink, legendary program, this is awesome. What a day for high school hockey.”
He’s not alone.
Behind yet one more nice defensive effort to permit simply 16 photographs on web to Marshfield, Belmont powered previous the final unbeaten Div. 1 crew within the state with the 2-0 victory to fulfill Arlington within the subsequent spherical. Greg Federico saved all 16 photographs, giving the Marauders (10-1-2) the time they wanted to beat a sluggish first interval.
Peter Grace’s second-period rating off a feed from Cam Fici throughout a 2-on-1 finally served the distinction, however Fici’s empty-netter with 12 seconds left sealed the deal in Belmont’s first time enjoying within the event.
“We knew we were in for a battle,” stated head coach Tim Foley. “It’s a great tournament, it’s great for public school hockey. It’s a showcase for our players, and they really take a lot of pride in playing for their communities, for their teams and their families, and it shows. That was a great hockey game.”
Penalty kill as soon as once more performed a big function for Belmont, permitting only one shot on Federico via two Marshfield energy performs. The Rams (11-1-2) had a lot of the identical success by permitting solely two photographs on web amid one other nice efficiency from goalie Brady Quackenbush (17 saves).
The Marauders finally pressured Marshfield to the surface on a variety of its journeys to the offensive zone, and the Rams struggled to get their bevy of exhausting photographs on web.
Source: www.bostonherald.com