Medway Upends Dover-Sherborn 7-1

Natick, MA – This was a game we couldn’t afford to miss: a matchup of one of the top teams in D2 vs. one of the top teams from D3: the Mustangs from Medway locked horns this afternoon with the Raiders of Dover-Sherborn-Weston on their Senior Night. This game was played at William Chase Arena in Natick and we were able to cash in a virtual ticket via LiveBarn. The match was split into two 22:30 halves and unlike many of the games we’ve seen the benches were mostly kept empty between both teams, instead with both teams standing outside the far end glass and changing out line by line accordingly.

The first period was a wide-open back and forth affair. Things got started quickly, two minutes in sophomore forward Pari Lykourinos and junior Alex Infanger broke into the DS zone 2-on-1. The initial shot wouldn’t go but Infanger threw the puck towards the net in hopes of centering it for his linemate, but instead, it went off a defender’s leg and in: 1-0 Mustangs. Just two minutes later, DS tied it up: senior forward George Herlihy made a slick cut to the front of the net and slid the puck home against the brick wall from Medway Evan Monaghan. This score wouldn’t stay the same way for long as 11 seconds later the Mustangs came roaring back as senior Cole Theodore took a cross-ice feed from Infanger off the rush and buried it top corner to make it 2-1 Mustangs. Both sides took a fair number of penalties throughout the remainder of the first half, but Medway wasn’t done scoring. With 49 seconds to go, Infanger drove into the zone off the left wing and Lykourinos kept his stick on the ice and tapped home an on-the-money centering feed. The score entering the break was 3-1 Medway.

In the second half it was all Medway, both in terms of puck possession and goal scoring. There was plenty of rough stuff from both sides which led to a fair few penalties, and that would come into play as well. There was a major penalty assessed midway through the half and it had disastrous consequences for the Raiders, especially after taking another concurrent penalty to make it 5-on-3. It was that dude again, Infanger fired a pass cross-ice to Theodore for the weak side score: 4-1 Mustangs. Later in the same penalty, senior defender Tom Bugbee teed up big junior forward Sean Murphy who wristed one through a crowd: 5-1 Mustangs. Seconds later, Theodore made a nice play to keep the puck in the attacking zone after the penalty had expired and got it to Lykourinos, who found Infanger to make it 6-1 Mustangs. Two minutes later was the final tally as Lykourinos settled a puck down and handed it to Infanger, who cruised into the zone past the D and waited out the goalie for the hatty: 7-1 final.

Three Stars:

  1. F Alex Infanger, Medway (3G, 3A)
  2. F Pari Lykourinos, Medway (1G, 2A)
  3. F Cole Theodore, Medway (2G)

NZ Notes:

  1. This was a closer game than the final score would indicate. Both teams were trading chances early and it was really anyone’s game before that major penalty in the second half assessed to the Raiders.
  2. That top line of Medway in Lykourinos, Infanger and Theodore is deadly, all three of them are great at finding soft ice, setting the pace and playing aggressively to force defenders to stop them. They cycled the opposition to death in this one and the chemistry they have as a line is tough to defend because they know where each other is going and you don’t.
  3. Medway goaltender Evan Monaghan had a solid game today: he was challenged a lot in the first half but not so much in the second half. We aren’t totally sure he has a pulse considering how calm he was throughout this one. At one point he lost his stick, but it didn’t phase him at all: he stayed focused and kept on playing.
  4. It should be noted that Monaghan was riding a 125 minute shutout streak coming into this game, which was snapped by senior George Herlihy on a really nice individual effort. The final tally (assuming we did the math correctly) is 129:24 of consecutive shutout minutes: quite impressive.
  5. Despite taking on a TON of shots in this game, freshman Andrew Goldstein made a couple of really nice stops on breakaways and point-blank chances. He isn’t big in the net, but he found a way to get into position quickly.