2/9/05
Salisbury Evens the Score
Watertown, Conn. – Back on the second Monday in January, Taft went up to Salisbury and knocked off their hosts, 5-4. This afternoon, Salisbury avenged that loss – its only one of the season -- with a convincing 5-1 win in Taft’s spiffy barn.
Today’s game, one of the season’s most highly-anticipated matchups, never really achieved lift-off, though the first two periods were fairly close, with Salisbury taking a 2-1 lead into the third. In the final period, however, the normally solid Taft defense fizzled, turning over the puck to the skilled Salisbury forwards, who scored three times to put the game out of reach.
Earlier, with about eight minutes left in the first, Taft had the first grade A scoring opportunity of the game, as Max Pacioretty picked up the puck along the boards near his own blue line, and moved it up to sophomore wing Jack Downing who finished off the rush with a goal mouth pass onto the stick of linemate Sean Carty, who was stoned by Salisbury sophomore goaltender Ross MacKinnon, who’d go on tohave a strong game.
Salisbury got on the board at the 17:29 mark when defenseman Phil Paquet made a nice play on the breakout, getting the puck up to Jeremiah Cunningham on the right side. Cunningham found former Framingham High star Will Ortiz near the left faceoff circle and Ortiz buried it for the only goal of the first period.
Early in the second, Taft’s Shane Farrell had a nice chance to even the score, but MacKinnon made the save.
Quickly afterward, Salisbury senior LW Brad Baldelli sliced through the slot and took a nifty pass from sophomore Mike Biega, stationed over by the right faceoff circle. Baldelli fired it by Taft sophomore goalie Andrew Margolin to put the visitors up 2-0 at 2:36. Steve Smolinsky, who set the play in motion from the Salisbury end, also picked up an assist on the play.
Taft got on the board at 5:52 when junior wing Doug Jones carried the puck behind the net, moved it out front to Pacioretty, who slid it back to Jack Christian at the right point. Christian unleashed a slapshot that beat MacKinnon low to the stick side to cut Salisbury’s lead to 2-1. There was no further scoring and Salisbury took a 2-1 lead into the second intermission.
In the third, Baldelli scored his second goal of the night at 7:30 when Taft turned it over at the blue line, and Baldelli picked it up, firing a 15-foot shot that appeared to deflect off the stick of Taft defenseman Peter Boldt and through Margolin’s 5-hole.
At 13:43 Taft turned it over in their own end and Salisbury’s Jerry Pollastrone jumped on it, whipping home a wrister from between the circles to make it 4-1.
Salisbury extended the lead to 5-1 – the final margin of victory -- when Andrew Estey fired a pass through the crease that zipped under Margolin’s outstretched pad and onto the stick of Will Ortiz, who redirected it home for his second goal of the night with 2:44 left.
Salisbury coach Dan Donato said, “Over the last two to three weeks we’ve started capitalizing more when other teams make mistakes. Plus MacKinnon was terrific, coming up with some big saves and calming the game down.”
Asked if Salisbury, now 17-1-1, had extra motivation coming in, Donato said, “Yes, it (the January defeat to Taft) was our only loss of the season-- we respect Taft and Danny Murphy.”
Over on the Taft side, Murphy said, “Salisbury played great. We didn’t play well, but they had a role in that. They capitalized on our mistakes. They are a very, very good hockey team. They’re the #1 team and I give them a ton of credit.”
2/27/05
Playoff Matchups Announced
Div. I:
#8 Tabor vs #1 Nobles, 3:00 @ Nobles
#7 Cushing vs #2 Berkshire, 4:00 @ Berkshire
#6 Choate vs #3 Loomis, 4:00 @ Loomis
#5 Pomfret vs #4 Lawrence, 4:00 @ Lawrence
Div. II :
#8 Brewster vs #1 GDA
#7 Kingswood vs #2 Gunnery
#6 Middlesex vs #3 Kents Hill
#5 Greenwich vs #4 Brooks
We’ll add in the locations and times of the Div. II games as we learn of them.
Semi-Finals: Saturday, March 5, 2005
Dexter and Southfield Schools, Brookline, MA
Div. II:
1/8 winner vs. 4/5 winner, 10:00 am
3/6 winner vs. 2/7 winner, 12:00 pm
Div. I:
1/8 winner vs. 4/5 winner, 2:00 pm
3/6 winner vs. 2/7 winner, 4:00 pm
Finals: Sunday, March 6, 2005
Div. II Championship Game, 10:30 am
Div. I Championship Game, 12:30 pm
