By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
With a raucous Saturday-night crowd endlessly chanting “Beat MV” from the stands, the junior varsity ice hockey team did just that – taking down their island rivals 4-2 for the first time ever at home.
“They absolutely skated their hearts out. They played the best game I have ever seen them play,” head coach Jack Moran said. “That game Saturday night was one for the books. It was unbelievable and they deserved to win. They went out there and they beat the Vineyard in every aspect of the game.”
The Whalers also defeated Cape Cod Tech Monday afternoon 4-3. The JV program improved to 6-6-1 overall with one game remaining on the schedule next Thursday at Dennis-Yarmouth.
Saturday’s victory over the perennially-dominant Vineyard hockey program was a huge boost for the program that won just one game last season and is looking to establish itself as a solid junior varsity team.
The Nantucket Ice rink was packed as the Whalers looked to avenge an 8-2 beatdown on the Vineyard’s home ice a few weeks earlier.
“We knew what we had to do Saturday and we had been planning for it all week and we drilled it into their heads. It had to be a physical game,” Moran said. “They were playing the guys trying to come into our zone with the body the way they should be, they were blocking shots, taking shots – they did everything they were supposed to.”
Senior goalie Joe Bopp, playing in his final home game as a Whaler, was a wall in front of the net, stopping nearly every Vineyard shot that came his way.
“He has such a huge role in how this team performs. I think when they know Joe has control of the net, it frees them to play more aggressively and be more offensive-minded than when they have to be defensive-minded. It is almost like having a seventh player on the ice,” Moran said.
Bopp, who made 33 saves in the game, was shutting the Vineyard out until late in the third period with Nantucket already on top a comfortable 4-0.
The Whalers got things started in the first period. With Nantucket on the power play, Zach Moran put a centering shot in front of the net, which bounced off a Vineyard player onto the stick of Nick Lombardi, who knocked it to the goalie’s left for the score.
The Whalers gave the crowd a big boost four minutes into the second period, when they scored on another power play. Codie Perry fed Garry Caruso for the second goal of the game.
“Something we have been working on all year is trying to perfect our power play and we did it a little better. We took our time, moved the puck around and didn’t force it as we had in the past,” Moran said.
There were 18 penalties in the game, 10 by Nantucket. The Whalers found themselves in two-man-down situations three times and shorthanded throughout much of the game. Defenders Taylor Thayer and Ethan Lockley, however, were able to keep the Vineyard from putting too many dangerous shots on net.
The Vineyard appeared to have scored late in the second period, but the goal was waved off by officials for not crossing the line when it bounced out of the net.
At 2-0, the game was still dangerously close at the end of the second.
“You can’t go out there thinking the Vineyard is going to stay relaxed. They are going to give it everything they have,” Moran told his team during the second intermission.
So the Whalers put the game away quickly out of the break. After Thayer put a shot on net from the blue line, Zach Moran took the rebound and punched it back into the open right side for the goal. Two minutes later, Jack Moran took the puck off the boards and sent a laser to the far post to give the Whalers the 4-0 advantage.
The Vineyard’s Tyler Araujo tallied two goals with time winding down to erase Bopp’s shutout.
Sweet revenge
The Whalers also avenged another early season loss this week when they topped Cape Cod Tech Monday. The Crusaders beat Nantucket 3-1 in its home opener in December.
“We were hoping we could play a game like we played Saturday, same intensity, same game plan, come out hitting, shooting. I don’t know if it was an emotional drain from Saturday, but they came out flat. They totally exhausted themselves Saturday since the way they played and haven’t had a break,” Moran said.
Caruso put the Whalers on the board in the first period off a feed from Lockley. Lockley then put Nantucket on top 2-0 with a picture-perfect shot from the point. In the second period Zach Moran opened up the Whalers’ lead with a goal assisted by Alex Perkins and Hunter Slade.
After the Crusaders got on the board with a goal in the second period, Slade put the game away on a goal assisted by Perkins and Thayer. Cape Cod Tech scored two unanswered goals later in the third period to make things interesting, but the Whalers held on for the win.
There were only six penalties called in the game, five on Nantucket.
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