Attleboro, MA – This is a game we had circled on our calendar all season long. Last year’s tilt between these two clubs was a real treat so we had to come back for another helping. This matchup featured two of the top teams across Division 3 and Division 2, Dighton-Rehoboth/Seekonk and Somerset Berkley (respectively) who were set to clash in a rematch after seeing each other two weeks ago (won by Dighton-Rehoboth/Seekonk 4-3). The DRS Falcons entered this game with a sparkling 13-0-0 record whereas the SB Raiders entered with a record of 9-2-2. The New England Sports Village was banged out and noisy, not an empty seat in the place, and thanks to LiveBarn we had a front row seat for this one.
The first period started off with the Falcons establishing some zone time early but the Raiders came right back at them in transition a few times. In fact, that’s exactly how the scoring started: sophomore defenseman Luke Gauvin bumped a red line pass to an in-stride senior captain Max Aguiar, who crossed the blue line and fired a puck on net from the wing to make it 1-0 five minutes in. He also skated by the opposing bench, cupping his hand to his ear Hulk Hogan style before dapping up his teammates. Just a minute later, the Raiders were back on the attack, and looked to have scored a nice give and go goal care of junior forward Davis Sullivan, but it was waved off due to the net being off its moorings. The Raiders continued to feed off the momentum of taking the early lead and put more pressure on the Falcons, but DRS started to claw back. They picked up the physicality as a result of their size advantage and it sparked the team offensively to start buzzing the zone. The deeper and deeper we got into this first period, you could really sense the animosity in the air: these teams didn’t like each other and both sides wanted to gain the upper hand. The clock hit triple zeroes shortly after the DRS push and the score was 1-0 after 1.
In the middle frame, the opening few minutes were dominated by cascading penalties, all of them came off the board to no avail, but SB regained the momentum four minutes in. Aguiar read the pass at the opposing blue line, stole the puck and went in on a partial breakaway, shooting against the grain left to right to give the Raiders a 2-0 lead. Following that goal both teams tried to establish their style, SB was looking to fly the zone in transition and DRS wanted to establish zone time, win along the walls and allow their big body forwards to win battles near the cage. Five minutes later, DRS got the spark they were looking for as junior defenseman Ethan Goudreau had a loose puck pop out to him at the top of the circle and fired one towards the net that hit a body in front and deflected in: 2-1 was now the score. The Falcons would double up just a minute and a half later as junior forward Noah Bastis stole a puck on the half wall and dished it to the far point for senior defender Ryan McCarthy, who fired one home with the benefit of a screen of the netminder: we were all tied at 2. Turns out the Falcons weren’t done quite yet as they added another tally two minutes later off a nice give and go play from behind the cage as junior Liam Fecteau fed senior Devin Dailey for the go-ahead goal: 3-2 Falcons with under three minutes to go in the period. That’s when SB struck back, as junior Noah Taylor flipped a puck over the defense from the red line onto the stick of Sullivan who beat the goalie clean streaking down the right wing: it was now 3-3. After all that firewagon action, the period drew to a close, and the third would determine the fate of this one.
In the final period, play between the two teams started out a bit more measured. Neither squad wanted to make the mistake that gave up the tying goal so as a result there was a lot of good positioning and stick checks and not a high volume of shots. The momentum really never tilted in this period until the 12 minute mark when two infractions were whistled on the Falcons 18 seconds apart. The ensuing two-man advantage represented a big momentum swing for whoever emerged victorious. Sure enough about a minute into the power play it was another goal by Aguiar: the puck was poked into the slot by the point man Gauvin and the captain banged home his hat trick goal on the power play and skated over to the student section imploring them to bring the noise: 4-3 Raiders. For the next six minutes the Falcons would blitz the attacking zone looking for the equalizer. They pulled their goalie with a minute and a half to go, but ultimately it was not enough: the Raiders pulled the 4-3 upset and hand the Falcons their first loss of the season. Terrific tilt between two great teams!
Three Stars:
- F Max Aguiar, Somerset Berkley
- D Luke Gauvin, Somerset Berkley
- F Devin Dailey, Dighton-Rehoboth/Seekonk