With less than a minute left in the second period, Chris Hocevar ’21 scored the first goal of the game against Nobles and Greenough at home on Saturday, quickly followed by Victor Malzahn scoring in the first minutes of the third period. Despite holding a lead going into the third period, Andover Boys Hockey ultimately lost 3-2.
According to Christian Ivancich ’22, the team was not able to take advantage of its early momentum, allowing Nobles to capitalize on its offensive opportunities and score.
“We were definitely dominating them in the first two periods. We controlled the pace of play, and we were getting our chances. Maybe we just shut down defensively and made a lot of stupid errors, and that cost us… after they scored that second one to tie it up, [and] it hit us that we were in a game now. It definitely hurt us mentally when they were able to put a third one home,” said Ivancich.
Despite Andover’s struggles with holding its lead to the end of the game, Head Coach Paul Tortorella ’80 hopes for the team to work on its strategies for games.
Tortorella wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “We need to continue to be a very difficult team to play against. All our games have been extremely competitive. We make no excuses, we have to find a way to score more goals and without sacrificing our structure. The boys really care and I know they are going to continue to do what it takes to play the game the right way. Anybody that has played Andover or watches Andover play knows what kind of team are. We just have to stay together and keep moving forward together as we gain ground.”
Andover went on to compete against Winchendon at home on Wednesday, and came out with a 7-6 victory, bringing its record to 7-10. The team attributes its win to a combination of capitalizing on its offensive aggression and being able to break down the opposing team’s defense.
Patrick Last ’22 said, “The game started out kind of slow; it was a slow game overall. We ended up winning, but it was not our best game that we’ve had… We did a good job on the offensive zone for the most part. We moved the puck well when we were in the zone, and we worked it low, behind the net, really well.”
The team also had to face the challenge of a handful of players being unable to play due to illness, according to Last.
“We only had ten forwards today, and we had to learn to work with that. Sickness was a pretty big challenge. We have three kids who are out sick, but a lot of people on the team have colds,” said Last.
Andover will travel to Loomis Chaffee on Saturday.
