Belmont, MA – The Arlington Spy Ponders traveled one town over to the Skip Viglirolo Ice Rink to take on the Belmont Marauders for the Middlesex League Liberty Division top spot.
Belmont came out playing aggressive, getting pucks down low and playing a physical game on Arlington’s defenseman, making it hard for any clean breakout opportunities. The hard work would pay off, 1:52 into the period Belmont’s defenseman Adrien Gurung blasted a shot from just inside the blue line by the Arlington goalie Jake Davies, giving Belmont the early 1-0 lead. Belmont would control the first half of the period, trapping Arlington in the neutral zone and they making themselves hard to play against. But Arlington would get on the board at the 9:07 mark when Stefanos Sotiropoulos took a shot from the right corner of the blue line and beat the Belmont goalie Ryan Griffin to tie the game at 1-1. Arlington’s scoring wouldn’t stop there. With 1:20 left, on a 2-on-1 in tight, Reid Malatesta found Jack Sadowski on the back door and he tapped it into the empty net for the go-ahead goal. The period would end with Arlington holding a 2-1 lead.
The second period would begin with Belmont on the power play. They had a couple of outside shots but no quality scoring chances as Arlington did a good job in killing it off. After the power play ended it was all Arlington as they dominated in-zone against Belmont. They played physical and Belmont struggled to break the puck out, causing them to continually ice the puck. Belmont’s goalie Ryan Griffin bailed his defense out on a couple of turnovers deep in their own zone, to keep Arlington from going up two goals. Then with four minutes to go in the period, Belmont’s Cam Fici would pick up a rebound and slip it past the the Arlington goalie Davies to tie the game. The period would end with the score 2-2.
The third period saw Arlington dominate time of possession: they got pucks deep in Belmont’s end and went to work. Arlington’s forwards did a great job executing their game plan and making it really tough for Belmont to break out of their zone cleanly. With Belmont only able to generate three shots in the period, their goalie Ryan Griffin would have to be the difference, and he was up to the task. Griffin stopped all of Arlington’s 13 shots giving Belmont a chance to play for a win in overtime.
The 4-on-4 overtime period didn’t produce much offense for either team, with only 1 shot a piece, which meant that the game would end in a 2-2 tie. Both teams would have to settle the score another day.
Three Stars:
- F Reid Malatesta, Arlington
- G Ryan Griffin, Belmont
- F Jack Sadowski, Arlington
