Close Call for Second Boys' Hockey

Second Boys' Hockey played a Thursday evening game against Mid-Fairfield and snuck away with a 4-3 victory. Charlie McGwire '08 scored on a high wrist shot midway through the first period (from Sam Stanton '10) giving the Martlets a 1-0 lead. Mid-Fairfield tied the game in the second period on a nice unassisted move which beat the Westminster defense on the outside. Unfortunately, Mid-Fairfield's powerplay unit netted the go-ahead goal with just 11 seconds in the second frame on a failed Wetminster clearing attempt. The Martlet's own, Joe Putko '08, scored first in the third period on the best passing play of the night. Stanton and Davie Hovey '09 combined some beautiful tape to tape passing as they assaulted the opponent's net -- ultimately sliding the final pass to linemate Putko, who banged the puck home. Two minutes later on a Westminster powerplay, defenseman, Burt McGillivray '10, drifted down off the Mid-Fairfield left post and tucked in a great cross-ice feed from Charlie McGwire '08. Shortly thereafter, Mid-Fairfield cleanly won the face-off in the Westminster end and tied the game on a shot and tip combination. Fortunately, both McGwire and Stanton picked up their third point of the game when they assisted on Tim Gray's '11 game winning goal at the 6:50 mark in the third. Despite some tense moments in the final minutes, particularly when Mid-Fairfield pulled their goalie, Westminster survived the onslaught behind the strong goaltending of Matt Betten '10. Although this game had moments of fine play, it also was defined by too many individual (non-team) plays and too many poor defensive decisions. The Martlets will have to be better if they hope to string together a bunch of wins in the days ahead. The team travels to Loomis for an afternoon game on Saturday.