The Andover Boys Hockey team worked hard over break, and its commitment paid off for the second year in a row. Before winter break, the team beat Pomfret, Pingree, and Worcester, and finished second to Salisbury in the annual Flood Marr tournament. On December 5th, the team played Pomfret at home and won the game 5-4 in overtime. Andover was up by two with the help of two goals from Redmond Colson ’10, but its lead slipped away shortly after Pomfret scored. Coach Dean Boylan said, “We could’ve won that game by a greater score. I’m happy with the win, but we need to work on playing tighter D and getting the puck out of the zone faster.” The game went into overtime, and Captain Brian Safstrom ’10 netted the gam winner off of a rebound. Garnet Hathaway ’10 said, ?“[Safstrom] played a great game and really capped it off with that goal.” The team played even better against Pingree and Worcester. Hathaway contributed to the 6-2 win over Pingree by scoring a hat trick, and Trevor Braun followed suit with another three-goal performance in the team’s 8-0 win over Worcester. The team looked to bring its high level of play into the tournament. Coach Boylan said, “Every team in the tournament played us very tightly. We discovered there that we can compete with some very good teams.” The first game of the tournament was against Nobles & Greenough, a team that beat Andover in the championship of last year’s Flood Marr tournament. Andover came out on top with a 2-0 victory. Braun said, “A lot of credit goes to our goalie Eric Yoon [’11]. He stood on his head to give us a shutout against Nobles even though he faced 40 shots.” Andover continued its winning ways with a 2-1 win against Westminster. Yoon played another great game, letting in only one goal out of 28 shots. Braun said, “Yoon played the best I have ever seen between the pipes. Without him, we would have been fighting for 7th place in the tournament, not 1st.” In the next two games, Hotchkiss and Salisbury proved to be tougher opponents. “In the final two games, we learned that if we make mistakes, we will get burned,” said Coach Boylan. “We made a few turnovers in our own end, and needed to get the puck into their zone more consistently.” Andover lost in its final game of pool play to Hotchkiss, but its solid 2-1 record earned the team a spot in the finals against Salisbury. After a Salisbury penalty put Andover on the powerplay early in the 1st period, Will Gray ’10 scored on a behind-the-back play. Salisbury responded with a goal shortly after. Early in the second period, Salisbury took the lead 2-1 with another goal. Eddie Ellis ’13 answered with a goal off a rebound. Hathaway said “Eddie stepped up huge in the tournament. He scored and assisted on many crucial goals.” After Salisbury scored in the thid period, Andover lost a lot of momentum and the game ended with a score of 5-2. On Wednesday, Andover defeated Proctor 6-4. Safstrom said, “It was a good first game back from break, but we are going to have to play much better if we want to beat Choate. on Saturday.”
