SPM vs Arlington, 12-31-11
By Zach Fournier, SPM Hockey Correspondent
The Guardians were in for a tough matchup on Dec. 23rd, as they squared off against rival Springfield Cathedral. From the level of intensity each team brought, you could tell the game was going to be a battle.
The Guardians set the tone early. They came out with a lot of energy, and right out of the gates, they were very physical. Merely 50 seconds in, center Derek Bourque and right winger Nate Spinney had a 2-on-1 up ice, but after nice passing, the shot missed wide left. Although they couldn’t capitalize, they let Springfield know that they had set the compete level very high.
After much of the period had consisted of disappointing power plays, the Guardians drew first blood. At 11:04 into the first, right wing Bobby Krafve took a feed from center Pat Germain and placed the puck past the Goalie’s glove side for the game’s first goal.
Cathedral answered with a ruthless onslaught on Guardian’s Goalie Tyler Miller, yet he answered the call, making several stellar saves to hold Cathedral scoreless through one.
However, it seemed that in the second period, an entirely different team in The Guardians showed up. Although they had a power play 3 minutes in during the 2nd period, much of the period was The Guardians attempting to defend a strong Cathedral offensive attack. At 4:19 into the period, G Tyler Miller attempted to make a routine play on the puck behind the net, but he ultimately misplayed it upon trying to move it up ice and gave it away to Cathedral, who gladly accepted the gift and capitalized on the unoccupied net to knot the game at 1-1. “It was just a fluke play, you know?” explained Miller after the game.
Then, at 13:49 into the second period, Cathedral, who was on the power play, made some great passes until the found an open man in the slot, who put the puck past Miller on his stick side.
The Guardians, within the final minute of period two, attempted to answer the two consecutive Cathedral goals, and almost put the puck in the back of the net after a scrum in front of the Cathedral goal; but the scored Cathedral 2, Guardians 1 after two period of play.
In the third period, the Guardians came out with almost the same level of intensity that they did in the first period. “We definitely got our stuff together in the third,” remarked Captain James Blute after the game.
The third period was a very exciting one, as the Guardians had many opportunities to tie it. Pat Germain and Zack O’Connor both had golden opportunities on breakaways in the third period, yet they came up empty. There were also several plays where rebounds led to pileups in front of the net, another set of opportunities to tie the score that led to no goals.
Within the final minute or so of play, the Guardians made a desperate attempt to tie the score by pulling their goalie in favor of an extra attacker. This however, only led to an easy empty-net goal that was awarded when one Cathedral player had a breakaway and, quite comically, SPM’s Nate Spinney tried to stop the puck by throwing his stick. Obviously, it wasn’t legal even though it worked, but it got a laugh from the crowd.
The final score was Cathedral 3, SPM 1. Captain James Blute described the game aptly by saying after the game that the team “lost it” in the second period. “We just need to finish our checks consistently, and get shots on net,” he added.
The lone Guardians goal was scored by RW Bobby Krafve. “I was just positioned in the right place at the right time, and I capitalized on the opportunity that I had,” he explained.
Although the Guardians lost, some positives could hopefully be taken from that game. For one, they showed that they could come out of the gates with intensity and play like that for an entire period. On the other hand, they couldn’t play the entire 45-minute game that way. Hopefully, the fact that they were essentially a “two-period team” that night is something that the team can nip in the bud; and with this tremendous SPM Coaching staff, it is definitely possible.
Guardians hockey visits the Yale Bulldogs
On Friday, January 6, 2012, the SPM varsity squad visited Yale University to tour the Bulldogs facilities and get an inside look behind the scenes of a Division 1 college hockey program. Later they took in Yale's game against rival Quninnipiac at the Ingalls Rink in New Haven. Check here for a rundown of the day by SPM's Zach Fornier.