ARLINGTON — In the vacation season of giving, Arlington boys hockey head coach John Messuri jokes he may not be getting a lot of a nice shock from a fellow coach after Friday evening.
With an offensive explosion within the third interval to interrupt free from a gritty tied rating, in addition to a valiant effort in web from Jake Davies, the unbeaten No. 2 Spy Ponders (4-0) skated to a 5-1 nonleague win over No. 3 BC High (1-1-1) at Ed Burns Arena.
All 4 of the objectives Arlington scored within the decisive third body got here from totally different gamers, began by Stephanos Sotiropoulos to interrupt the 1-1 tie the interval began with. The second got here from Killian Wright, who paired with Jake Russell to guide the crew in factors with a objective and help every.
Messuri downplayed the importance of the win over a fellow energy within the grand scheme at this stage, however acknowledged the wherewithal to get the job finished. Especially from Davies.
“A win like this over coach (John) Flaherty means I’ll probably get a crappy Secret Santa gift from him, that’s about all it means at this time of the year,” he mentioned. “The third period, the puck went in for us. I still thought it was an even game. I don’t think the score is indicative of the whole game. … (Davies) was the difference.”
Much of the matchup was a tight-knit affair, as each teams excelled on the defensive finish to interrupt up alternatives across the crease and defused the whole lot harmful in transition. Russell’s opening objective within the first interval regarded prefer it may very well be the one rating of the sport, particularly when Davies picked up seven of his 24 saves inside the Eagles’ first energy play early within the second interval.
Even with 13 whole saves towards BC High’s 4 energy performs, Davies couldn’t cease all of its stress as Pete Luecke buried the neutralizer with 6:51 to go within the second body. Eagles goalie Christian Gonsalves (24 saves) withstood a number of clear pictures of his personal to maintain it tied. BC High stored a number of stress on Davies to bang on the door of probably stealing the lead all through the remainder of the body, however the senior held true.
“If it wasn’t for Davies, we would’ve been down a touchdown,” Messuri mentioned. “The fact that we weathered that second period was a miracle.”
It didn’t take too lengthy for Arlington to interrupt free within the third, although. Sotiropoulos adopted his personal rebound lower than three minutes in to interrupt the tie. Five minutes later, a wonderful cross from Ryan Gilbert gave Wright an open lane down the proper facet, and he put a transfer on Gonsalves to double the lead. Liam Gore prolonged the benefit to 4-1 lower than two minutes later, and Evan Jones put the nail within the coffin shortly after on a 5-on-3 energy play.
“I was just happy to help my team get a win any way I can,” Davies mentioned. “It’s huge, that was a really big task for us. High school hockey, it’s 20 games in the season. Every game matters. That was a big win against a big team. Feels good.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com
