Governors has made a concerted effort to infuse their lineup with players who made a big impact in the MIAA, namely Owen Fowler (UMass-Lowell commit) and Sean Brown formerly of Central Catholic. But Middlesex has upperclassmen veteran leadership that keeps them in every game and gives them the opportunistic awareness to strike quickly. They are led by senior goalie (and captain) Joe Stanizzi and senior scorer Alex Rivet on the front line. Tonight’s game was a back and forth physical battle until Governors pulled away late to take it by a final score of 5-3.
The scoring started 7 minutes in when Henry Carlson shoveled home a rebound in front of the net to make it 1-0 in favor of the home squad. Middlesex made a push minutes later and evened the score at 1-1 when forward Nick Angelis snapped home a wrister from just below the dots. The Zebras added one more before the period ended with Jared Arnold scoring from a near identical spot to make it 2-1.
The second period was all Governors, who came out of the dressing room buzzing. First, 12 minutes in Shane O’Leary cut across the slot from right to left beating Stanizzi with a nice delayed wrister to tie the score on the PP. Then two minutes later he fed Mitch McGinn through traffic to give Governors the lead which they would not relinquish. Forward Alex Duncan added another net-front tally to make it 4-2 Govs after two stanzas.
“Our forwards did a great job of finding seams and creating opportunities,” said Governors head coach Brian McGuirk. “We got Shane O’Leary back from injury tonight and he jumped right in and helped us: he played a great game. Plus, [goalie] Drake Wheelden settled in after the first, he got his confidence, he started seeing pucks well and he definitely helped us in that 2nd and 3rd period.”
The third period was mostly academic, with both teams getting a bit more rough and a couple of players sustaining injuries. The Zebras pulled to within a goal just under 4 minutes into the period when forward Alex Rivet sprinted up the right side and sophomore forward Kyle Heath was parked in front to clean up the rebound. Defenseman Olle Akermark sealed the W for Govs with just over a minute left as he walked in and ripped a shot under the bar to make it 5-3.
“We played a pretty complete game tonight, obviously it’s very tough creating offense on a goalie like Stanizzi but we did a good job down low, we won the possession game there,” said McGuirk. “Defensively we were smart, we were simple, and overall it was a pretty complete game.”
Three Stars of the Game:
1st Star: F Shane O’Leary, Governors
2nd Star: F Mitch McGinn, Governors
3rd Star: F Kyle Heath, Middlesex