Saturday’s game against St. Dominic showed Scarborough boys hockey coach Jay Mazur why it’s important to continue spending valuable practice working on something that sometimes doesn’t even present itself.
That something is the power play, and on Saturday the opportunities were plentiful. All the hard work the Red Storm put in fine-tuning its man-advantage strategy over Christmas break paid off against the Saints.
Scarborough converted four of its seven chances and won, 4-2.
“There’s been a lot of games where we didn’t get any power-play goals even though we had a lot of chances,” said Mazur, whose team improved to 8-2-1 with the win. “If we’re going to ask for our power-play to come up big on a certain day, this is a good day to come up big.”
The key, according to junior captain Brent Mayo, was increased puck movement.
“We had the cross-ice passes working – they were leaving it open for us – so we just kept moving the puck pretty quickly and getting shots on net,” he said.
Not just any shots, though, quality shots that repeatedly caught St. Dom’s goalie Brady Blackman out of position.
At the end of the first period, with St. Dom’s captain Tyler Martin off for tripping, the new and improved power-play units got their first opportunity of the day.
Nineteen seconds in, at 12:28, senior captain Bill McHugh stole the puck away from Harry Jaquith, who was trying to clear it out from in front of the net after Steve Cook put a shot on from the right point. McHugh whacked it past Blackman to make it 1-0.
Two minutes later, Tom Gosselin was sent to the box for roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct. The Red Storm couldn’t put another one in before the end of the period, but – with more than three minutes left on the double minor at the start of the second – there would be plenty of time to make good.
Senior defenseman Mark Beidelman did just that 1:05 into the period. Mayo drew a defender his way when he carried the puck into the left corner from the blue line. That left Beidelman open at the point. Mayo found him and fed him, and he sent a slapper through traffic for a 2-0 lead.
Power-play goal No. 3 came at the 5:31 mark. This time Craig Michaud was in the box for the Saints, and Brian York did the scoring for Scarborough.
Dan McGovern carried the puck into the zone and sent a shot on goal from the left faceoff dot. The rebound kicked away to York at the right post and – with Blackman still adjusting into position – he popped it into the empty net.
“Not to make any excuses, but we had a tough two weeks of hockey,” said St. Dominic coach John Pleau, whose team played both Cape Elizabeth and Cheverus earlier in the week. “This was our fourth game this week. Mentally they just weren’t into it, and you can’t afford to give up power-play goals.”
Still, though, the Saints managed to keep things close.
A minute and a half after York’s goal, St. Dom’s forward Alex Tyburski picked off a cross-point pass and raced in alone to beat goalie Jason Barden (18 saves).
Mazur was impressed with the way his team responded to the goal by increasing its forechecking pressure – “It’s anything from a one-two-two to a one-four, but we’re always making sure that we have a guy pressing hard,” he said – but the Saints still managed to earn a penalty shot 11:40 in.
The puck was covered by a defenseman in the crease, so Martin was given a free breakaway.
The junior forward went to his backhand and Barden read it all the way. Had the shot gone in, Martin’s goal 3:44 into the third period would’ve tied the game. Instead, the Saints still trailed by one.
“Had he got that we would’ve taken all the momentum right back and, hopefully, stopped playing frustrated hockey,” said Pleau.
The frustration continued, though. Gosselin and Eric Bonawitz both went off for tripping within a minute of each other, giving the Red Storm a two-man advantage. Blake Lucier made it 4-2 with the fourth power-play goal of the game at the 6:34 mark.
“It’s huge. We’ve been waiting for this win all year, since last year when they beat us 8-1 or whatever it was,” said Beidelman. “We couldn’t wait to play them again.”
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