Icemen eliminated in OT by division rivals

There’s a longstanding belief in sports that it’s hard to beat the same opponent three times in one season, and the CHS boys’ hockey team seemed to prove as much over the weekend with its 2-1 overtime loss to Oliver Ames in the quarterfinal round of the Division 2 south sectional tournament.

At the very least, it seems a fitting explanation, as the Bulldogs not only played well enough to win on Saturday; they were also the decided favorites coming into the game, having already beaten the Tigers on January 5 at home (3-1) and again on January 29 at OA (4-2).

But the real difference in this one, according to head coach Brian Shuman, was that the OA players seemed a little bit quicker down the stretch, sparked by Hockomock League MVP Andrew Taylor, who scored both of the Tigers’ goals and was just about unstoppable for the final 11-plus minutes of action.

While taking nothing away from his own players’ performance, Shuman said Taylor seemed to “turn it on” around the six-minute mark of the third period, which is precisely when he noticed the momentum starting to slip away.

“[Taylor] just took over,” said Shuman. “He was the fastest guy on the ice, the strongest guy on the ice, and it wasn’t even all that close.”

Up until that point, however, the Bulldogs had played great. They dominated the puck throughout most of the opening period, and even after giving up an odd-man rush with under a minute to go that led to OA’s first goal, they refused to let it shake them.

Shuman said goals like that typically give the other team a “boatload of momentum,” but it was Canton that stole the show in the second period, highlighted by Brian Brooks’ “beautiful” feed to Nick O’Connor, who banged a one timer between the goalie’s legs to even the score at 1-1.

For the period, the Bulldogs outshot OA 14-7, and they continued their strong play well into the third even as they struggled to find the back of the net.

Unfortunately, just as the defending champs began to wear down, Taylor and the Tigers got hot. And by the start of the overtime period, Shuman said his players looked spent.

At the same time, they refused to quit, and when whistled for a penalty three minutes into OT, they rallied together to kill it off. Just moments later, however, Taylor threw a quick wrist shot from the corner that deflected off goalie Rich Nee and bounced in.

It was one of those shots that are impossible to defend, yet it lifted OA to a surprising 2-1 victory and a date with Franklin in the south sectional semis.

“It was a tough one; it really was,” Shuman said afterwards. “It seemed, for all the bounces that we got during our [state title] run last year, the luck turned against us this time around.”

Still, Shuman said the Tigers “played a good game and deserved to win.” And yet, other than a few missed scoring chances, there was little to criticize about the Bulldogs’ performance on Saturday — or all season, for that matter.

Even with the loss, the Bulldogs finished the season with a very impressive 15-4-2 overall record to go along with yet another league title; and despite the early exit in the tournament, Shuman said he “couldn’t be prouder of this group” and considered it a “real pleasure” to have watched them grow and develop throughout the year.

“They have nothing to be ashamed of,” he said. “They were a real class act.”

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Posted by Jay Turner on Mar 10 2011. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.