Boys Prep Sunday Updates- Final Tournament Day

Salisbury    4    Andover     3

Salisbury raced out to a 3-0 lead and then held on to win the Flood Marr tournament 4-3 over Andover.

Lucas Mercuri scored a hattrick as the Knights went ahead 3-0 and looked to be in control. Andover would get one back on a tipped shot from the point before the end of the second.

Andover would close the lead to 3-2 and then again 4-3 but Nick Haas would close the door to preserve the win.

1- Lucas Mercuri, Salisbury

2 – Nick Capone, Salisbury

3 – Mac Carso, Andover

St. Sebastian’s     4    Northwood     3

The St Sebastian’s Tournament ended with a thrilling championship contest between Northwood and St Sebastian’s. This was a high tempo, high skill hockey game from start to finish. While each team had chances to score the first goal didn’t come until 1:15 remaining in the first when St Sebastian’s senior defenseman James Davenport scored on a low wrist shot from the point through traffic.

Just under two minutes into the second period Northwood evened the score on a point shot from senior defenseman Andrew Gilbert that got deflected at least once and slid in. With the game tied at 1-1, Northwood took the play to St Sebs for a few minutes but were unable to capitalize.

The home team was able to restrain the puck and get it into their end where sophomore defenseman Thomas Messineo blast a low slap shot from the point which was deflected (slightly) by Jack Hughes to pull ahead with 12:09 remaining in the period. Northwood quickly responded 20 seconds later as Nate Boak shot a puck from the point which took a weird hop, was deflected and batted out of mid air by Stephen Panico to tie the game.

At 2-2 going into the third period it was evident this would go to the very end. The Arrows scored first with 13:23 remaining when Jayden Struble carried the puck end to end and scored a beauty off angle snap shot over Northwood netminder shoulder. The play of the game arguably the play of the tournament.

Northwood would tie it up exactly 5 minutes later when Jared Lambright scored on a low wrister from the point that went 5-hole and trickled into the net.

St Sebastian’s got on the power play the next shift and were able to capitalize, again on a point shot from senior defenseman James Davenport with 6:13 remaining. Both teams swapped chances late in the game and a too many men on the ice call with 2:13 remaining made things interesting but Northwood, even with the goalie pulled, couldn’t get a quality chance to tie. The game ended 4-3 in one of the best games of the entire weekend.

Three Stars of the Game:

1- James Davenport, St Sebastian’s

2- Jayden Struble, St Sebastian’s

3- Nate Boak, Northwood

 

Millbrook    4     New Hampton    3  (SO)

The goal for Millbrook is simple: win to avenge last year’s Championship Game defeat to an upstart Pingree team. This year, they finished pool play 3-0, but so did their opponents the New Hampton Huskies. Somebody was due to finish the afternoon with a blemish on their record, the question was who. Both teams play hard and both teams play fast, but only one can be the hardest and the fastest.

The first period was probably the best hockey we saw all weekend. Both teams were smart, hard on the puck and took advantage of their chances. The first half of the period was played fairly clean but the penalties started to enter the picture in the back half of the period. Forward Kyle Neudorf scored first by cutting to the net and stuffing one home followed by Jason Ruszkowski who snapped one home from the slot which concluded the first: Millbrook had a 2-0 lead.

In the second it was a topsy turvy affair: New Hampton came out firing and scored seven minutes in with a blast from the point by D Steven Ardagna. Just over a minute later, D Cale DuBrul fired home another shot from the point off the right post to make it 2-2. Three minutes later, on the PP New Hampton took the lead 3-2 on a PP feed in front to Alec Grace but that momentum was short lived as Millbrook tallied the tying goal with just 3.7 seconds left in the stanza – forward Jason Ruszkowski’s 2nd of the game, on the shorthand. The third period promised to be quite a show.

While the third did not disappoint when it came to entertainment value – it did not feature any goal scorers despite quality chances at both ends. The period went back and forth with both teams trying desperately to get the puck to the net and fish for rebound chances. Both goalies made impressive saves and the D core on both sides were stout.

That led to two five-minute OT segments of 5×5 hockey which included most nip and tuck hockey with a couple of close calls thrown in but that was not enough to decide a winner.

It took an 11-round shootout to finally name a champion. The 21st overall shooter was Millbrook’s Andrew Peters who concealed his shot until the last minute when he fired a wrister past the glove of New Hampton goalie Matt Sayles. Next up was Duke Litwin for the Huskies, who whistled his shot wide and the celebration was on for the Mustangs.

Westminster    5     Nobles    3   

Westminster headed into the third up 3-2, withstood a strong push from Nobles and held on to win 5-3 (empty netter) to win 3rd place at the Flood Marr.

Wyatt Pastor scored the go-ahead goal with less than 6 minutes to play and Ignat Belov added an empty netter. Sean Clarke had two goals for the victors.

Nobles played hard in defeat and received strong games from Jack Cronin and Pierce Kenney.

1 – Seane Clark, Westy

2 – Wyatt Pastor, Westy

3 – Pierce Kenney, Nobles

 

Deerfield    6    Hotchkiss    2

Deerfield beat Hotchkiss 6-2 in the 5/6th place game at the Flood Marr Tournament. Deerfield was the bigger, stronger team and dominated play from start to finish.

Michael Holland had two goals for the victors and was a threat to score each time on the ice. Sean McAvoy (1 goal) also had a nice game for Deerfield.

Hotchkiss had a tough night, however, one bright spot was Alex Mozian who scored a nice goal and made some slick plays all over the ice.

1 – Michael Holland, Deerfield

2 – Sean McAvoy, Deerfield

3 – Alex Mozian, Hotchkiss

Rivers     5    Winchendon     1

The St Sebastian’s Tournament is broken into two halves. The first half Rivers outplayed Winchendon and controlled the pace and had a lot of offensive zone time. With that being said Rivers only managed to score once which came ten minutes into the period when Antonio Andreozzi made a smart indirect pass that sprung Rory Casey for a mini breakaway where he used his speed to drive the net, make a nifty deke move and score. The rest of the half Rivers applied the pressure but couldn’t finish.

That would change in the second half as they netted 4 goals. The first came only 2:25 into the half on a power play when Michael McEachern scored a slap shot from the point which kind of waffled over the goalies glove. They scored their second with 10:31 remaining on a skilled play where junior defenseman Ryan Rahbany hit sophomore Coleman Nee with a pass in the slot where he made a quick deke and sniped. Four minutes later Rivers found themselves on another power play and sophomore defenseman Ryan Bell made them pay with a well placed wrister from the point through traffic for the 4-0 lead. Both teams would score in the final minute of the game; Rivers goal was a spin-o-rama rebound goal in tight by Samuel Amato and Winchendons goal was a breakaway deke from Travis Heap.

Three Stars of the Game:

1- Rory Casey, Rivers

2- Matt Cormier, Rivers

3- Michael McEachern, Rivers

KUA    4    Milton    0

KUA thoroughly outplayed Milton in the 7/8th game on the final day at the Flood Marr.

KUA took a 2-0 lead into the third and received goals from Paul Dore and Zach Whitehead in the closing minutes to win 4-0.

Zach Paputsakis didnt have much work to earn the shutout.