Hyannis, MA – One of the great D1 rivalries in the MIAA was renewed tonight with a battle between the Falmouth Clippers and the Barnstable Red Raiders from the Hyannis Youth & Community Center on the Cape. Every year the stands are packed for this one, but this obviously is not a normal season due to the pandemic. Restoring some sense of normalcy the play was carried out over three 15 minute periods. Although we unfortunately missed the opening minutes of this one due to a late start on the stream.
The opening frame was a bit helter skelter with lots of missed passes, skating slips and shots missing the net. It was back and forth action the entire period largely because there was so much room to operate. Big hits led to penalties which meant more opportunity for wide open looks at the net. Unfortunately, neither team found the back of the net in the initial 15. Interestingly, both teams stayed at their respective benches for a quick 2 minute breather and then we got right back to the action.
The second period featured even more penalties – if we were to guess approximately 2-3 minutes of that entire period was played 5-on-5. No matter, it only took three and a half minutes to break the seal on this game as junior defenseman Kyle Souza of the Clippers took a shot from the faceoff dot and the Barnstable goalie wasn’t quite set: 1-0 Falmouth. Only three minutes later the Clippers would pad that lead as Souza crept to the top of the same circle and fired one home to make it 2-0 Falmouth. At that point Barnstable started to gain some momentum off penalty kills and started generating more and more chances at the other end. They struck three minutes later when senior defenseman Colby Pearsall drove to the net and disguised his shot enough to get the Falmouth goalie to bite before snapping it off to cut the lead in half: 2-1. And that was how the period would end as the Zamboni came out to clean the ice for the first time in this contest.
That would set up an exciting finale in the third. The final frame flew by, although it was dotted by plenty of additional infractions which slowed things down a bit. More firewagon hockey ensued as both sides had great chances and there were plenty of big hits along the way. The next goal was big and Barnstable knew it. With about 12 minutes elapsed they tied this thing up as senior forward Dillon Huntington doggedly pursued the puck at the net front and took two whacks at it to stuff it home near the left post. It was now 2-2 with only 3 minutes left. That’s when the real heroics started: freshman defenseman Chris Shanahan relieved the pressure in his own zone by wrapping the puck behind the net and down the right wing where senior Max McDonald caught it and fired the puck up the ice to a streaking junior Kevin Coyne who stepped past the defense off the wing and buried it top shelf to give Falmouth a 3-2 lead that they would not relinquish. This game seemed ticketed for a tie since there was to be no OT, but that execution off a faceoff gave the Clippers a last minute win.
Three Stars:
- F Kevin Coyne, Falmouth
- D Kyle Souza, Falmouth
- D Colby Pearsall, Barnstable