South Portland 10
Massabesic/OOB 1
Five first period goals, including two on the power play and a short-handed goal helped propel the South Portland boys’ hockey team into the playoffs on a high note with a 10-1 win over the visiting Massabesic/OOB Seastangs Monday afternoon at Portland Ice Arena. Robert Hannigan and Nick Fornwalt each scored a pair of goals to pace the Riots.
“We finished on a high note,” said South Portland head coach Joe Robinson. “It’s the last game of the season. It’s not one of our tougher games that we’ve faced this year, but we came and we knew what we had to do. We worked on what we had to work on; our power play and our systems. We go into the playoffs on a positive high note.”
South Portland got the scoring started right away when Brendan Horton put back a Fornwalt rebound just 2:32 into the game for a power play goal. The Riots were able to put the pressure on the Seastangs right away as Ian Wyman was in the penalty box for interference.
Less than 90 seconds later, the Riots scored the game-winning goal. That one came off the stick of DJ Conley. Conley grabbed the rebound from another Fornwalt bid. Conley’s shot got by diving Seastangs goalie Zach Salo.
With the lead in hand, the Riots were able to spend time working on things for the upcoming playoffs.
“We’ve got to get back to basics our forecheck is looking really good right now, but our zone coverage is a little weak. We’ve got to work on that. We always need to work on the power play-that always needs work. The penalty kill looks good it’s been good all season.”
South Portland got their next goal during a penalty kill. With Horton in the sin bin, the Riots needed to kill off his penalty. While down a man, Fornwalt snuck the puck into the top shelf to give his team a 3-0 lead.
The Seastangs got one back just over a minute later when Greg Lodge got one by South Portland goalie Connor Igo.
The Riots netted another pair of goals in the closing minutes of the period. Zach Horton scored with 4:03 to go in the period and Hannigan tallied his second with just 1:36 left.
“We got off to a slow start today so that made it difficult,” said Seastangs head coach Dave Pasquarello. “When you’re down 5-1 after the first period it makes it an uphill climb. But South Portland is going to have a playoff game and they played well tonight. They just beat us to the puck and they outshot us about 40 to 10.”
Dustin Matthews gave the Riots a 6-1 lead with 9:25 to go in the second period. He uncorked a wrist shot from the right wing circle for the score. Aidan Boyce scored another power play goal for South Portland with 2:23 left in the second period when he banked a shot off a Seastangs defender right in front of the net.
Zach Griffin, Fornwalt and Hannigan scored for the Red Riots in the third period to give them their 10-1 margin of victory.
Now the Riots head for the playoffs. Who they will play is still unknown, but Robinson knows one thing; he’d like a win.
“We just don’t know who is going to play who,” he said. “I’m thinking we’ll probably fall from fifth to sixth or seventh. It would be nice to get a win. We always get in and when we do, we just can’t take that first game. It would be nice to take that first game get that under our belts. That would be a nice step in the right direction for the program.”
The Seastangs finished their season with one win and one tie. They will play in a shadow tournament this week.
“I would say overall we had a pretty good season,” Pasquarello said. “I would say 90 percent of the games we played we were in and the kids had a chance to win. We had the youngest team in the state. We had some injuries and kept some guys out with sickness. That’s nothing out of the ordinary that teams don’t go through. But we’re playing Class A hockey. Even though we’re in tier three, you need to be ready every night. We’re looking forward to next year. We have a lot of young kids who are working hard.”
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