Sports

Andover Boys Hockey Wins Crucial Match-Up vs Nobles, 3-0; Combo of Stowell ’09 & Kreider ’10 Star in Sucessful Week

A total of four goals from Chris Kreider ’10 on the week and a hat trick from J.J. McGregor ’08 on Friday led Andover to a dominating 3-0 week. Andover’s first match this week was against Thayer. The opponents started off the period strong, scoring just 53 seconds into the game. However, at the 6:13 mark in the first period, McGregor scored the first of his three goals, assisted by Co-Captains Bobby Farnham ’08 and Andrew Cox ’08. Just a minute later Thayer responded with another goal to take the lead, 2-1. After a back-and-forth second period, Andover seemed to come out of the break rejuvenated, as it broke out in the final period, leading to a blowout win. Farnham added his second unassisted goal of the game while McGregor also tallied his second off a great pass from Cox. McGregor scored again off a nice feed from line-mate, Kreider. Cox finished the scoring for Andover off a pass from Tucker Mullin ’08, topping off Andover’s commanding 7-3 win. On Saturday, Kreider had two scores and goalie Glenn Stowell ’09 had his second shutout of the year, helping to propel Andover to a 3-0 win over powerhouse Nobles. Off a pass from Cox, Kreider broke the deadlock and scored the first of his two goals. Neither team could score for the remainder of the period, and the game headed into the first intermission with Andover in front, 1-0. In the second, Steve Bury ’08 received a pass from Ryan Heavey ’09 at the bottom of the left faceoff circle. Bury sent a behind the back pass to the weak side, where he found Brooks Dyroff ’09, who fired the puck past the goalie, extending the Andover lead to 2-0. Both teams had problems with penalties in the third period, and neither team was able to get much offense going. However, in the final minutes of the game, Kreider struck again. After receiving a pass from Bennett Carroccio ’10, Kreider skated down the left wing and fired a shot into the upper- right corner for his second of the game. Andover would hold the lead and win 3-0 thanks to stellar goaltending from Stowell, who had 36 saves in the shutout. Andover hosted Winchendon on Wednesday, finishing with Bury scoring a game-winning overtime goal to go along with Kreider’s two goals, as Andover pulled off an exciting win, 3-2. Winchendon scored an early goal to take a 1-0 lead in the first period. However, Andover responded at the 11:44 mark in the first period. On the power-play, Kreider got a pass at the point. He skated the puck to the middle and fired a slapshot from the blue line. The puck, deflected in front, over the goalies left pad and into the net to tie the game at 1-1. Andover extended its lead again at the end of the second period. Kreider got the puck at the bottom of the right face-off circle where he held onto the puck, allowing the Winchendon defenders to cover a streaking Cox in the slot. Kreider fired a shot that beat the Winchendon goalie on the near side for his second of the game and team-leading 13th of the year, giving Andover its first lead, 2-1. Andover was unable to hold the lead, and Winchendon managed to score during the third.. The teams skated the rest of the contest goalless, despite numerous opportunities for both squads. The game headed into overtime tied at 2-2. At about the midway point in the overtime period, Carroccio received a puck at the left point and fired a slapshot on net. The puck rebounded hard to the right faceoff circle, where Bury fired a shot into the net for the game winner. Andover won its third game of the week 3-2, giving the team a 9-6 record on the season.