After dropping their first game of the season to Saint Sebastian’s last week, the Andover Boys’ Hockey team has been in somewhat of a funk. Coming off the tough loss against “St. Seb’s” the Big Blue racked up a tie against Governor Dummer Academy on Friday, a loss against Noble and Greenough on Saturday, and their first win in four games against Brewster Academy on Wednesday. All in all the Boys on Ice have scored fifty-nine goals this season and goalies Cory Schneider ’04 and Matt Ward ’06 have let in only 23. The Andover Blue record now stands at 10-2-3. Andover got on the board early in the first period against Governor Dummer when Joe Adams ’03 received a pass from Tommy Dignard ’06 and took a wrist shot which sailed, glove side, just out of the goalie’s reach, resulting in a goal. The rest of the period was full of hard hits and board denting shots, with neither team able to find the back of the net. The period ended with Andover still leading 1-0. The second period began quicker than the first when, just a measly forty-five seconds into the period, burly GDA forward McGuirk put one by Schneider to tie things up. Eleven seconds later, as if in response, Adams skated down the ice and scored his second goal of the day to regain the lead. PA held this lead until the final dwindling minutes of the second period when GDA’s McGuirk found the back of the net for the second time in the period, and tied things up once more. In the third period neither team was able to score, and the game went into sudden death over time. When the buzzer sounded, signifying the end of the third period, and the players vacated the ice defenseman Ben Ernst ’04 remained down. Ernst was taken off the ice and later diagnosed with a broken collar bone. The game went into two OT periods during which time neither team was able to score. This resulted in a 2-2 tie with spectacular play between the pipes from both goalies. The next morning the Boys in Blue were ready to face off against Noble and Greenough. Coming off a tough OT tie the day before the Boys on Ice were perhaps a little “out of it” at the beginning of the period and let in two early goals. Twelve minutes and forty seconds later, however, left wing Kyle Kucharski ’05 got a turnover in the slot and scored an unassisted goal on the Nobles keeper. This put Andover on the board for the first time that game. Thirty seconds after the face off of the second period Pete Smith ’03 passed to Nick Mazzolini ’03 who took a slap shot that rebounded of the Nobles goalie’s skate. Adams skated in and picked up the puck, putting it in the back of the net to make it a tie game. Things remained tied up until the end of the third period when a Nobles forward was able to score from the crease to give Nobles the lead. When the buzzer sounded the final score was 3-2 in favor of Nobles, and Andover had acquired its second loss of the season. This past Wednesday Andover took on Brewster Academy (Division Two) with Ward ’06 making his second ever Andover start in net. The first period began quickly with a lot of shots on goal, and the Andover fourth line seeing a lot of playing time. In this shooting gallery of a period neither team was able to tally a point, and the period ended with the game still tied at zero. In the second period the PA offense exploded, and the fourth line started to see less time on the ice. The period began on a power play with two Brewster players in the box big. Captain Drew Ward ’03 passed across the goal and Mazzolini put it in glove side of the Brewster net minder. Later on in the period goals by team Captain Ward and defenseman John Doherty ’03 put PA up 3-0. The only close call of the period came when Andover was two men down and the Brewster offensive line began to pound the younger Ward in the net. But Matt held his own and deflected every shot keeping his shutout intact. The third period belonged to Andover early when freshman scoring machine Chris Cahill ’06 put one by the Brewster keeper. Brewster responded shortly after with their first goal of the game which put them down 4-1. Then in the last dwindling minutes of the game Mazzolini, on a breakaway, deked out the goalie and with a simple flick of his wrist sealed the deal at 5-1 to give Andover a decisive victory.
