NATICK – What a difference a week can make?
When the New England Future Stars season opened on May 3, the Squirt Division showed it would be amongst the most competitive in the league, every game played on Opening Weekend decided by just one goal. As all 10 Squirt teams met at the William L. Chase Arena in Natick on Saturday for the first day of play on Showcase Weekend, things proved to be much different.
The average margin of victory across the five games that day was +8.
The day’s first game hit right on that margin as the North Shore Stingrays opened up Squirt Showcase Saturday with a 10-2 victory over the South Shore Sabercats.
The Stingrays assault started right at the opening face-off, Daniel Storella scoring just eight seconds into the contest, and persisted all period en route to a 6-0 North Shore lead at the first break. Storella and Nick Lucich each scored a pair in the frame, with Manny Alvarez-Segee and Brandon Maiui each notching one.
Despite the deficit, the Sabercats did not roll over with two–thirds of the game still to be played. They came out buzzing and begin to chip away at the Stingrays’ advantage in the second, Ava DeCoste getting her side on the board at 2:56, putting away a wrist shot from the slot. Brandon Perry also scored from in tight, his mark at 4:01 setting the score at 6-2, where it remained until the second intermission, the Sabercats defense and goaltending tandem of Christian Gonsalves and Zephyr Jones all combining to keep the North Shore offense off the board in the second.
Though they had been slowed in the second, the Stingrays picked up the pace again in the third. Just as their lead had started to slip with the Sabercats coming alive, the Stingrays came back to put the game away, scoring four in the game’s final 15-minutes to secure their first win of the season, 10-2.
As was the norm of the day’s first three games, the Marlboro Thunder did similar to the Stingrays in the second game in Natick on Showcase Saturday, hopping out to an early lead over the Raynham Raiders and never looking back.
Took a little longer than the Stingrays’ eight-seconds, the Thunder starting their scoring at 2:02 on a goal by Blake Swartz. Marlboro’s lead grew to 2-0 before Raynham got in on the action with a Ryan Vincent goal at 6:05, trying not to let the game get too far away from themselves, but a stretch of four goals in less than a minute starting at the 10:04 mark all but put the game away, giving the Thunder a 6-1 lead.
Raynham stemmed the tide with a Jake Titone goal at 14:04 to make it 6-2 heading into the second, but as the game continued seemingly everything the Thunder touched turned to gold on Saturday. While holding the Raiders scoreless over the game’s final 30-minutes, Marlboro added three in the second and four in the third to complete the 13-2 victory.
JJ Monteiro (3G, 1A) lead the way with a game-high three goals, but it was Victor Nedelescu (2G, 3A) who led all scorers in the contest with a game-high five points.
The trend of big first periods for winning Squirt team’s on Saturday hit its crescendo in day’s third game, which featured the highest scoring period for any one team and the largest margin of victory; the South Middlesex Coyotes posting a 13-0 win over the Natick Chill.
The floodgates opened for South Middlesex on a Caroline Aufiero 3:42 and there was no looking back as an 8-0 lead was built through the first period. Aufiero scored once in the frame, as did Dillon O’Reilly, while the Coyotes got a pair each from Will McLean, Max Tong and Sammy Taber.
Scoring slowed as the contest progressed, South Middlesex scoring three in the second and a pair in the third to complete their victory. In total, six Coyotes were credited with multiple points, led by Taber, who had a division-best five goals and six points against the Chill. Tong was close behind with two goals and three assist, while Trent Scarbro and Jack Munini combined in net for the shutout.
As margins of victory grew through the early games, there was a much different tenor to things as the Norfolk County Hawks and Southeastern Grizzlies took the ice for the fourth Showcase Saturday game at Chase. Though the scoreboard read a comfortable cushion by game’s end, the comfort of that lead was deceiving. It was the tightest match of the day with defense dominating as the Grizzlies left Natick with a 4-0 victory over the Hawks.
It was a much different brand of hockey being played as the Hawks and Grizzlies went back-and-forth from the start. Chances came on both ends of the ice with Grizzlies defenseman Drake Melo the first to convert, giving his side a 1-0 lead at 9:33, coming in off a long rush to sneak one past Hawks starter Cole Pouliot-Porter. Melo then upped the Grizzlies advantage at 12:31 with his second of the day to give Southeastern a 2-0 lead through one.
With aims of putting the game early, as was done in the day’s prior contests, the Grizzlies offense was better in the second than they were in the first. Yet, so was the Hawks defense, limiting the quality of chances they were surrendering and it took some luck for the Grizzlies to extend their lead in the period. With traffic in front, Southeastern’s Shane Temple took a shot from just inside the top of the circles that pinballed its way through and in to make it 3-0.
The Grizzlies had their final strike at 10:38, another streaking rush resulting in a Jacob Alemida power play goal to make it 4-0.
Looking to avoid their first loss of the season, the Hawks stepped up in the third and were all over their foe. There were a number of quality chances to get closer on the scoreboard for the Hawks early in the third, but netminder Ian McWhinnie and the Grizzlies did not yield. Just about three minutes in, the Hawks had a golden opportunity, the puck loose in front of a seemingly open net, but McWhinnie came up with the stop. He did the same about two minutes later as he robbed Colton Scheralis, who was in all alone on a shorthanded breakaway, preserving the shutout.
Norfolk County dominated the possession and scoring chances in the third, but the Grizzlies defensive wall could not be broken and the 4-0 win was preserved.
With a new tone set following the Hawks and Grizzlies, the day’s finale took elements of all the games that came before it with the Boston Brahmas staving off some third period theatrics from the Central Mass Cobras and closing out Showcase Saturday in the Squirt Division with an 8-4 win.
Like the contest that was on the ice just beforehand, the Brahmas and Cobras went back-and-forth through the first period, but fortune favored the Brahmas as they slowly built up a comfortable lead. That lead started as 3-0 through one with goals coming from Elliot Slayne, TJ Birnbaum and Sean Murphy.
It then grew to 4-0 before the Cobras got on the board at 9:14 of the second period. Central Mass forward Benjamin Stout picked up the puck after a takeaway at the far blue line before walking in alone on a long breakaway, going low glove to get the Cobras on the board. The Cobras rally was not to start yet, however, as Connor Fryberger scored just over a minute later to set the Brahmas advantage at 5-1, where it remained into the third.
Playing until the end, the Cobras saved their theatrics for late in the third, Jack Beauregard’s goal at 10:01 the first of two in about 1:30 that got Central Mass back to within two at 5-3. The outburst, however, also shook the Brahmas awake, Murphy scoring his second of the day off the face-off that ensued after Stout’s second, which had made it 5-3, to quell the Cobras’ rally.
The Cobras pulled the goalie early for the extra attacker, but the Brahmas capitalized on the empty net situation, Declan Daley making it 7-3 at 13:18. Ryan Benoit brought it to 8-3 at 14:27 with the goaltender back in. Central Mass, however, was left with still one bit of theater to be had, Joshua Granfield closing out the Squirt’s Showcase Saturday with his goal at the final buzzer to round out the game’s scoring at 8-4.
