Martlets Fall to Salisbury

The Martlets made the trek west on Route 44 today to face off against Salisbury. With puck drop set for 3 pm the Black and Gold settled in for the matinee this afternoon. The first period offered up some great prep school hockey. The Martlets played well in the first frame and although their offensive zone time could have been better they still managed to generate some high-danger opportunities. Unfortunately, the Salisbury tender turned away bid after bid to keep the Martlets off the scoreboard. Salisbury played with great pace in the first and eventually opened the scoring around the 10-minute mark. They would take the 1-0 lead into the intermission. The Martlets came up flying in the second and had sustained zone time to start the second period. Despite a flurry of chances, the Martlets could not find the equalizer. Moments later, Nicholas Tstatas '24 streaked in and fired a deceptive shot that beat the goalie and tied the game at 1. Salisbury pushed back and took advantage of two turnovers late in the period scoring their 2nd and 3rd of the day to take  3-1 lead into the final period. The Martlets started the 3rd period on the penalty kill and Blake Burke '25 capitalized on a turnover to score a short-handed goal to cut the Salisbury lead to 1. Salisbury answered right back to regain the 2 goal lead. Salisbury netted another one to take a 5-2 lead. With just about 6 minutes to play Patrick Dotson '24 joined the rush, Brian Judge '24 found him on the weak side and Dotson buried his chance to cut the lead back to 2. Moments later, Judge corralled a loose puck near the face-off dot in the Salisbury end and fired a shot through a screen that found the back of the net to cut the lead to 1. With the goalie pulled, the Martlets had several looks to tie the game but the Salisbury goalie stood tall and held on for the win. Not the outcome we wanted but a great effort to dig and claw our way back into the game.