Grayden Robertson-Palmer ’25 plays center on the Andover Boys Hockey team.
Friday 2/9 – Andover: 2 Governer’s: 4
Wednesday 2/14 – Andover: 0 Cushing: 3
On Wednesday, Boys Hockey played at home against Cushing, following an away game at Governor’s. The team lost to Governor’s after a solid effort and fell short in a competitive matchup against Cushing.
Co-Captain Drew Smith ’24 emphasized that a strong team culture has been essential to the team’s 13-1-9 success this season. Andover has built chemistry off the ice and has seen it translate in its game and practices.
Smith said, “[The team culture is] really good. It’s the best it’s been… since I’ve been here. It just keeps getting better. It’s really positive. Everyone’s uplifting each other. You hear it in practices and in games. people are hanging out outside the rink, eating dinner together, and just hanging out in general.”
In Friday’s game against Governor’s, Smith was a stand-off player. His strengths on defense kept the team’s defensive line strong throughout the game. Rui Han ’25 highlighted Smith’s performance.
Han said, “Drew Smith was exceptional in that game. I thought he was really solid defensively, and I thought that penalty against him was a little cheap. I thought it was a good hit. Let the boys play!”
On Wednesday, the team practiced protecting in the defensive zone, noted Luke DeAngelis ’25. The team acknowledged the competitive matchup against Cushing, who has won 92 percent of its games and has scored 132 goals this season so far.
DeAngelis said, “We play them every year, and we know they’re strong. Coming off of a tough loss against Governor’s the previous Friday night, one thing that we had worked on was being better protective in the defensive zone. So if you’re a defenseman, for example, and you’ve got two forwards coming down, you need to think and practice how you are protecting that, how are you taking away a deadly pass for their team? So we spent a lot of time this week practicing on locking it down defensively.”
Against Cushing, Goaltending Chase Anderson ’25 stood out among the players. DeAngelis highlighted Anderson’s efforts, marking him as a strong force defensively. Anderson had made 31/34 saves.
“I’ve kind of especially noticed our goalie has been especially strong. This year, our goalie is Chase Anderson. He’s just solid. I mean, he comes out really nicely. He has a couple huge saves every game that the team really kind of stands up for and taps the bench for him. So, I mean he kept us in the game the whole way by making some really solid saves so we have him to thank,” said DeAngelis.
Looking ahead, the team is looking to dominate offensively, score more, and take advantage of face-offs. DeAngelis broke down the game plan going forward.
DeAngelis said, “I think kind of the big takeaway from the game is the zero on our scoreboard, and it’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to score. But, Coach Tortorella [’80] told us after the game [that] we had chances just like hockey’s a huge game involving kind of luck and the way the puck bounces, and today, the puck wasn’t bouncing our way. I think we’re going to continue in practice to work on finishing and really making sure that we lock down.”
DeAngelis continued, “Faceoffs is another thing that our coach was going to have us continue to work on because they scored two goals off of a faceoff. So, we probably shouldn’t have given them up.”
Andover Boys Hockey will play Pingree at home on Friday.
