By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
The club hockey team dropped two more games this week, falling 5-3 to Dennis-Yarmouth Friday at home and 3-1 to Bourne Saturday on the road.
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Photo by Bevin Bixby
Nick Lombardi fights for control of the puck against the boards during Friday’s 5-3 loss to Dennis-Yarmouth. |
The Whalers (0-5) will look to earn their first win of the season on the road this weekend at Cape Cod Tech on Saturday and Triton on Sunday.
After being outscored 26-3 in the first three games of the season, the Whalers showed marked improvement, scoring first in both games and staying within striking distance late.
“I think the kids are starting to understand that you don’t want to be down right off the bat. Playing a game, it sucks the wind out of you. Playing competitive hockey, you know you want to jump on the other team quick, especially at your home barn. If you can score first at an away game, you start controlling the game. The other team has to press a little bit more,” head coach Kris Marsh said. “It was great that we were able to get the first goals in both games and almost start dictating how we want the games to go rather than clawing our way out of a deficit.”
“A ‘W’ would have been huge, but before the ‘W’ you have to work as a team and skate the whole game at 100 percent and then the ‘W’ will come,” Marsh said. “Two of the three are there and the third will come.”
The Whalers were playing with a light bench Saturday at Bourne. While most of Nantucket’s off-island games were postponed so that students could attend the funeral of NHS junior Will Soverino, the hockey game was played as scheduled due to the later start time.
The game was played with a 50-minute running clock due to time constraints.
Alex Perkins put the Whalers on the board first approximately 10 minutes into the game with his first goal of the season.
Bourne took the lead when Hunter Slade drew a 10-minute major penalty and a two-minute boarding call. The Canalmen scored on the man-advantage situation and held on the rest of the way for the win.
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Photo by Bevin Bixby
Adam Ceely brings the puck up-ice against a Dennis-Yarmouth defender Friday. |
Casey Kurash got the start between the posts for the Whalers and played a solid game, making two big saves on break-away opportunities by Bourne.
Taylor Thayer, Ethan Lockley, Chris Bell and Hunter Stojak played well in front of Kurash as the only two defensive lines.
“I think the kids are starting to see it is not going to be easy. They can’t just show up at the rink, tie their skates and be ready to play a game. It starts the week before,” Marsh said. “This week, minus all the circumstances that took place, we had some of our best practices of the year. The kids are starting to see the urgency.”
Offense coming along
Against Dennis-Yarmouth at home on Friday, the Whalers put forth their most successful offensive effort to that point in the season. Nantucket put 10 shots on net in the first period, including a shot from Stojak from the point that ricocheted off a D-Y defender and into the net for the 1-0 lead.
After the Dolphins tied the score later in the first period, Quinn McCusker took a feed from Slade and fired a shot high to the goalie’s left with two minutes remaining in the period to give Nantucket the 2-1 lead.
“We definitely weren’t going for the home-run passes. We worked a lot this week on the three- to five-foot passes and we got them,” Marsh said. “They were able to break out of the zone, and open up in the neutral zone and get some sort of offense going. We definitely had a lot more shots from the point and the forwards were using the ‘D’.”
But in the second period, D-Y came out and put up four straight goals, two on man-advantage situations, to take the 5-2 lead over Nantucket.
“Losing the second period definitely hurt us. We lost it big, but collectively if we could have got a couple more goals in the third we could have battled back,” Marsh said.
Early in the third period James McIntosh took a feed from Perkins at the blue line and shot a rocket between the goalie’s left pad and the post for the third and final goal of the game. Nantucket put 12 shots on goal in the final frame.
The Whalers were called for 11 penalties in the game, including a game misconduct late in the third period by McCusker. D-Y also spent a significant amount of time in the penalty box with 10 calls against the Dolphins.
“There were some penalties that were called that took the momentum out of our sails, but they battled back,” Marsh said. “There were a couple calls that were questionable.”
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