Second Boys' Hockey Topples Taft

Second Boys' Hockey defeated Taft 5-3 at home. The Martlets had a good flow going early on and scored two goals in the first 6 minutes. Tim Gray '11 opened the scoring after getting a pass and  rebound from linemates Sam Stanton '10 and Phil Sandler '10. Shortly thereafter, Davey Hovey '09 stormed in on a breakaway, after collecting a Taft neutral ice turnover, and calmly deked the Taft goalie for a 2-0 lead. Unfortunately, Westminster took several penalties towards the end of the first period and the Black and Gold never really regained a consistent flow during the contest. In the second period, Taft got on the board after redirecting a shot from their defense, but Westminster countered with Stanton and Sandler setting up Hovey for his second sweet deke of the afternoon. The Martlets were determined to play a tighter third period, but didn't. A combination of good forechecking by Taft and some sloppy play by Westminster defensively resulted in two Taft goals during the final frame. Fortunately, Captain Brian Smith '08 produced a Martlet goal as well when he buried a rebound from a Sandler shot (giving Sandler his third assist of the day). With the score 4-3 in the closing seconds, Tom Cavazuti '10 tracked down a Brian Smith lob pass and slid the puck into the Taft open net to end the game. Special mention must go to a collection of Martlet penalty killers who did a tremendous job all game long -- Hovey, Nick Crosby '10, Kirby Zdrill '09, Hunter Spannaus '09 and Conor McGovern '08. Defensemen Carson Christman '08 and Oscar Ladd '11 had a particularly strong game for the Black and Gold.  Netminder Matt Betten '10 made 20 saves on the day to help Westminster get its first win in 2008. Although it was nice to come out on top, the team will need to be sharper against Salisbury this coming Saturday if they hope to secure another win.