CHS icemen bow to
Franklin, finish 2nd in the Hockomock
By Jay Turner
Citizen Staff
For the second
time this season, the CHS boys’ varsity hockey team played well
enough to beat its biggest rival, the Franklin Panthers, but
somehow still ended up losing by a lopsided score – only this
time it occurred on home ice with a possible league title on the
line.
While it
wasn’t for lack of effort, or lack of opportunities – Canton
outshot Franklin 22-12 for the game – the Bulldogs simply could
not find the net with enough regularity, while the Panthers did
just that, skating away with an opportunistic 3-1 victory last
Thursday to clinch their first Hock championship in three
seasons.
“Once again,
the story with Franklin has been the same this year,” head coach
Brian Shuman said afterwards. “We played pretty well, but these
guys, they find a way to win.”
Shuman said
his team had plenty of chances to score in the first two
periods, but they failed to capitalize while Franklin scored in
both frames, including one that was redirected off a Canton
player’s stick. But the real “backbreaker” came partway through
the third period, when the puck took a couple of strange bounces
before making its way to a Panther for a wide-open shot, giving
Franklin a three-goal advantage.
Two minutes
later, Bobby Hayhurst scored to make it 3-1 with an assist from
Matt Buckley, but it was too little, too late as the defending
champs were forced to settle for second place.
Looking on the
bright side, Shuman said his team has “yet to play [its] best”
against Franklin and actually hopes the two squads meet again
come tournament time, which gets underway next week.
Meanwhile, the
Bulldogs proved their resiliency just two days later, when they
returned to the same ice to wallop Mansfield 6-1 and “avenge” an
earlier tie.
Canton scored
a pair of goals in each of the three periods, led by senior Kyle
Leavitt, who finished with two goals and an assist. Also scoring
for the Bulldogs were junior defenseman Mike Oldenberg, seniors
Frank Eckler and Joey DiPillo, and freshman Nick O’Connor.
Buckley, Hayhurst, Mike Denehy, and Kevin Rooney each had one
assist.
But the
biggest star on Saturday, according to Shuman, was goaltender
John Donaruma, who made several “incredible stops” to preserve
the lead in a game that was closer than the score indicated.
“It could have
easily been a 4-3 or 4-4 game (at the end of two periods),”
Shuman said, “but John stood tall and made some great saves.”
The victory
brought Canton’s overall record to 13-3-1 with three games to go
in the regular season, including nonleague games against Hanover
and North Quincy earlier this week, followed by a makeup game
against North Attleboro this afternoon at the Foxboro Sports
Center.
February 18, 2010
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