Michael Carso PG’19 scored a hat trick against Thayer.
In the middle of the second period of Andover Boys Hockey season opener, Tyler Little PG’19 sniped the puck past Albany’s goalie to secure a tight 1-0 victory.
Andover continued its momentum in its next two games, prevailing against Tabor on Sunday with an overtime 2-1 victory and against Thayer 4-2 on Wednesday, bringing the team’s overall record to 3-0.
Despite the roster being relatively new, the team has already grown close, and this positive team dynamic has helped Andover triumph in its first three competitions, according to Co-Captain Carter Giampietro ’19.
Giampietro said, “The team dynamic is amazing, we’re all super close, always together and all participate in the psyche as well, which I think lead to our success on ice.”
In its first game on Saturday, Andover travelled to Tabor for the Tabor Jamboree, a two-day event. Heading into to the wtournament, Andover aimed to maintain its mental composure and rely on the skills it had focused on in practice, according to Victor Malzahn ’21.
“Our strategy was to just stick to the systems practiced for the last couple of weeks, and [to not] get rattled if we go down by a couple goals. We wanted to just keep playing as hard as we could and trust each other,” said Malzahn.
According to Giampietro, goalkeeper Charlie Archer ’20 played three stand out games, letting in only three goals and making over 40 saves.
Giampietro said, “I would say that our penalty kill has been super effective every game, and it has been super helpful in addition to Charlie Archer who has played amazing these past days.”
Looking forward, Andover intends to keep working on its established systems as well as developing its chemistry as a team, according to Malzahn ’21 and Giampietro ’19.
Malzahn said, “We can definitely improve on not taking too many penalties, as it’s been hurting us in these games. Also just the overall chemistry as we’ve only been a team for a couple of weeks now, so we still have a lot improvement in getting used to each other’s’ style of play so we can work better as a unit.”
“We need to stick to our systems a bit more, and really buy into them. This will help us create more offensive and give up less scoring chances,” added Giampietro.
Andover will face New Hampton at home this Friday.
