Ice Men Close Season on Positive Note
Three games, three different outcomes.
In non-league boys' hockey action, visiting Leominster (11-6-1) defeated Groton-Dunstable 2-1. The Boston Bruins and our Crusaders seasons seem to be paralleling each other and that's disappointing.
The Blue Devils scored on power play at 6:03 of the opening period, when Cam Moran (assists: Ryan Leger, Matt Williams) roofed a shot just under the cross-bar with three seconds remaining on a man advantage. G-D trailed only 1-0 after the first period despite being out-shot, 11-3 over the first 15 minutes thanks to a solid effort from Nevin Tardif between the pipes.
You could sense that coach Rowley 'discussed' the lack of production between the first and second periods as G-D came out of the break and skated, getting almost immediate results. Joseph Zinkann (assists: Nate Irby, Kam Strong) poked the puck past Devils keeper Jack Cordio at 2:09 to knot score at 1-1. Zinkann, Irby and Connor Hannemann were on the same line and Kam Strong was part of the defensive pairings. They were solid in second and third periods.
Crusaders went on a power play at 5:30 of the second, skated well but came away with nothing to show for it.
With Tardif without his stick and out of position, KJ Dowling (assists: Cam Moran, Brandon Lefebvre) scored the game-winner at 9:23 of the second period.
In third stanza, G-D outskated Leominster, got two power plays within minutes of each other, outshot them 14-7 and got a great point-blank stop from Tardif on a Devils break-a-way but they were unable get anything past Cordio. That was that!
"Nevin Tardif had a great game in goal making 39 saves," said Rowley.
It was senior night and Brad Garside is the only senior on the team. "It was Brad Garside night," grinned Rowley.
"We got it going late in the second and in the third period. But you can't skate just one period," groaned Rowley after the loss.
On Feb. 19, Connor Hannemann (assists: Nick Irby, Joseph Zinkann) and Harry Perreault (assists: Robert Hoare, Kam Strong) scored in second frame to push Crusaders (6-11-2) past Hudson (5-9-4), 2-1. In the third period, things got interesting when Hawks Rocco Malloy scored at 4:58 to close the Crusaders advantage to a goal but solid defense and Ben McEvoy (31 saves) made the difference.
Crusaders ended their season with a 1-1 tie against Stoneham (4-10-1) last Friday. While Spartans had a losing season, they play in the very competitive Middlesex league with the likes of Burlington, Reading, Winchester, etc. Next year, 10 returnees will be seniors for GD. Hopefully, bigger, stronger, faster. Could be interesting!
