Framingham and Canton, MA – With four contending D1 teams playing for a trophy in late December: it’s a must-see for us! This was a particularly special event as My HockeyLive dedicated this year’s tournament in memory of the legendary Mass HS sports videographer Pat Serio. As it has in the past it featured four top D1 teams in Framingham, Marshfield, Xaverian and St. John’s Shrewsbury. The opening game was played at Loring Arena while the second game was played at Canton Ice House.
Semifinal 1: Marshfield vs Framingham – In the first period (playing 15 minute periods here in Framingham) Marshfield was tenacious on the forecheck and was able to dump and chase with speed to put the Framingham defense in tough situations. That is how they scored their first goal: forward Cam McGettrick chased down a puck at the half wall to keep it in the zone and start the cycle which eventually wound up in the hands of junior defender Connor Merrick at the point and down low was who else? Super sophomore forward Will Doherty, who banged home a rebound five minutes in for a 1-0 Rams lead. For the remainder of the period both teams created odd man chances with speed but neither team could add to their totals on the scoreboard. 1-0 would be our score heading into the 2nd.
In the second period, there was a fair amount of back and forth and both teams drove the puck deep, but not many Grade A chances to speak of. Things changed once a penalty was called on Framingham seven minutes in and Marshfield would double their lead. Doherty fired a puck home from the point on the man advantage to make it 2-0 Rams seven minutes into the frame. About three minutes later, Marshfield found themselves on the power play again and Doherty collected the puck at the point and fed it to McGettrick who creeped in to the dots and fired one off the left post and in to make it 3-0 Rams. Marshfield would continue to press after the third goal, but could not find the back of the net in the next five minutes: 3-0 was our score after two.
In the final stanza, Framingham had a two-man advantage to start the period after a netfront fracas at the end of the 2nd but Marshfield was able to execute the kill and maintain their lead. Three minutes in, they would add to it as McGettrick and Doherty worked a little more magic with a cross-crease pass from the latter to the former for his second of the evening. Each of them now had two tallies on the night. Just 30 seconds later Framingham got on the board with a strong rush up the wing by PJ Farese and the puck was dug out of a scrum behind the net by junior forward Davin Nichols and flipped to the far side where a waiting Noah Albright banged it home to make it 4-1. That was to be our final margin of victory after a third period of back and forth action but no additional scoring: Marshfield wins 4-1 and advances to take on the winner of the second semifinal.
Three Stars:
- F Will Doherty, Marshfield
- F Cam McGettrick, Marshfield
- F Noah Albright, Framingham
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Semifinal 2: St. John’s Shrewsbury vs Xaverian – In the first period (playing 17 minute periods here in Canton) it was a wide open, creative and fast-moving period with notable looks for both teams. Xaverian owned a lot of the early possession and got to Grade A territory a few times, but the Pioneers stood tough and kept the puck out of the net. As the period wore on SJS was able to gain the momentum as a result of a couple of Hawks penalties. Regardless though, the period would end without any scoring.
In the second period, a Pioneer penalty led to the first tally of the game. Just a hair over a minute into the period an offensive zone draw for the Hawks was won by senior forward Max Lockwood. He dished it laterally over to sophomore forward Will Irving who one-timed it far side past the netminder: 1-0 Xaverian. Riding the wave of momentum, the Hawks put the pressure on in the next few minutes, barely letting the puck reach their defensive zone. However, the momentum would shift again off a big hit by Xaverian in the neutral zone that drew a penalty and led to a 2-on-1 break for SJS as freshman forward Daniel Menyalkin dished it netfront to sophomore forward Brody Hoar who slipped it home to tie the game at one, seven minutes in. This got Xaverian’s attention as they would have a response a couple of minutes later. Defender Cole LeBlanc gathered the puck at the point and fired one off the goalie’s pad which found the stick of captain Jack Silva who buried to make it 2-1 Hawks. A few minutes later, the Hawks would add another on a slick rush by forward Kevin Parrish who skated laterally across the zone and fired the puck across his body (moving right, shooting left) to give Xaverian a 3-1 lead.
In the third period, Xaverian looked to put the nail in the coffin and it was that man again, Parrish, who carried the puck into the SJS zone on the penalty kill, dragging a D to the net and firing one up high: 4-1 Hawks with 15 minutes left. As the period wore on though, the Hawks were whistled for multiple infractions as SJS began to buzz the cage and that gave the Pioneers a 5-on-3 man advantage. That was later negated by an SJS penalty and Xaverian made it hurt as captain Nolan Dion curled and dragged a puck beyond the tops of the circles and fired a seed through to make it 5-1. Shortly after that, Lockwood made two nice self passes past the defense and dug the puck out from the corner finding Braden O’Hara alone in the slot to one-time it home: 6-1 Hawks. And then just for good measure they added one more as LeBlanc fired another to the netfront and forward Jack O’Neil poked it home to give us our final score: 7-1 Xaverian. The Hawks would advance to the Finals tomorrow to take on Marshfield for the MHL Pat Serio Cup.
Three Stars:
- F Kevin Parrish, Xaverian
- F Max Lockwood, Xaverian
- D Cole LeBlanc, Xaverian
