Martlets Win at Home

The Martlets hosted a well-coached and disciplined St. Luke’s team to Jackson Rink for an exciting Friday night of hockey. Paced by the line of Cole Raycraft ‘23, Newt Cutler ‘22, and Jack Adams ‘23, the JV team skated to a hard-fought 2-1 victory. Keeper Alec Rosenbaum ‘23 played very well, turning aside 15 of 16 shots he faced – including several point-blank shots and rebounds off scrambles in front of the Black and Gold net. Jaden Goodsell ‘23 opened the scoring for the home side when he picked up a loose puck behind Rosenbaum’s net and skated the full 200 feet past the St. Luke’s defenders (and all of his teammates) before slipping the puck past the Storm goaltender. St. Luke’s evened the score on the very next shift when a Westminster miscue turned the puck over in the home end and a waiting Storm forward pounced on the puck and fired it past Rosenbaum. The game settled into a pitched back-and-forth battle for the next period-and-a-half, though in fairness the Martlets had the balance of the offensive play. Early in the third period, defensemen Jack Carter ‘23 gathered the puck behind the Martlet and made a long stretch pass to Cutler waiting on the Storm blue line. Cutler won a battle against a St. Luke’s defensemen down the far boards into the offensive zone, and zipped the puck to the front of the Storm net. There waiting was a streaking Adams, who hammered the puck into the net for the game-winning goal. All credit is due the St. Luke’s keeper, who made several strong plays and ultimately tallied 34 saves for the game and kept his team close to the final horn. Westminster had to kill off a careless penalty in the final minute with the St. Luke’s net empty; the 4 vs. 6 disadvantage was deftly handled by Raycraft, Cutler, and Nick Orenstein ‘23 and Easton Masse ‘25. Once again, the defensive core of Carter, Sawyer von Jess ‘22, Keegan Bankoff ‘22, Luke Reiter ‘23, and Jack Rockefeller ‘23 were rock-solid, anchoring an increasingly strong and competent defense. Also contributing with several strong shifts were Jack DeGulis ‘23, Peter Diorio ‘23 – who both played well on a key penalty kill in the first period – as well as Jackson Alpaugh ‘24, Jake Timone ‘25, Stuart Dorman ‘23, and James Frangos ‘24. The Martlets once again will have little time to recover: the team travels up Interstate 91 to face the Hoggers of Northfield Mount Hermon tomorrow afternoon. Two years ago, the JVs won an exciting 7-6 game in the final seconds of the contest – the coaches hope for a more decisive victory tomorrow!