The Andover Varsity Boys Hockey team comes into the 2006 season looking to improve upon last season, in which it went 19-6-1 overall, with an exit in the playoff quarterfinals. Andover will be returning 15 of 23 letter-winners from last year’s squad, including almost the entire defense and goaltending. Like many New England prep hockey teams, Andover will face a challenge losing three of its top four scorers to graduation. Returning to the team is Captain J.P. Martignetti ’06, Khaki Burke ’06, Chris Cahill ’06, Paul Engelhardt ’06, Colin Touhey ’06, Ben Weiner ’06, and Joe Smith ’07. Returning to defense are seniors Tom Dignard ’06, Tony Christiano ’06, Mike McMahon ’06, Hunter Thunell ’06, and Jake Edwards ’06, while starting goaltender Matt Ward ’06 returns for his senior season. Andover opened up the 2005-2006 season with a home contest against Lawrence Academy, in which Andover struggled with penalties, in a 2-2 tie. In the next two games, at home against Division-II foes Proctor and Pingree, Andover handily defeated its opponents by scores of 6-2 and 9-1 respectively. The next test for Andover was against a strong St. Paul’s team, and a 37 save effort by goaltender Ward and a four-point performance from Cahill, on its way to defeating St. Paul’s 4-1. A week later, the annual Flood-Marr holiday tournament would bring Andover the challenge of four games in three days, and Andover opened the tournament with a 2-0 shutout over host team Milton Academy, while Ward kicked out all 22 shots he faced, and Scola scored both of Andover’s goals. Next, Andover challenged Westminster Academy only to drop the hard-fought game 2-1. Later that night, Andover faced the Salisbury School. Both teams held the score at 0-0 halfway through the game, but Salisbury’s pressure was too much and the team lost a 4-1 decision. Andover tied Deerfield in the fifth-place game to finish the tournament. Andover traveled north to New Hampshire to take on Holderness this Wednesday, and Andover showed no rust in scoring four goals in the first six minutes, on its way to a 10-4 victory over Holderness.
