Icemen cruise into D2 quarters with back-to-back W’s

With two impressive shutout wins in a three-day span last week, the Canton High boys ice hockey team punched their ticket back to the Division 2 Elite Eight — setting up a huge showdown last night with sixth-seeded Newburyport, their longtime rivals from the north.

Freshman defenseman Teddy Shuman netted his first career playoff goal last week. (Mike Tureski photo)

Coming in as the No. 3 seed with a record of 19-4-0, the Bulldogs are again one of the tournament favorites this year and are gunning for a fourth consecutive state finals appearance (excluding the COVID-shortened season of 2021).

Canton had beaten Newburyport once already this season — 3-0 on the road back in January — but head coach Brian Shuman was expecting a much tougher Clippers team for the rematch at Gallo Arena in Bourne.

“I’ve seen them play recently and they are much improved,” said Shuman. “It’s always a battle against Newburyport and this one I think is going to be a really, really tough test.”

The Bulldogs have been similarly hot as of late and are riding a five-game winning streak, including their recent postseason victories over No. 30 Medford and No. 19 Wilmington.

Shuman said the team needed to shake off some nerves early in their opening matchup against Medford last Thursday, but they eventually settled into a groove en route to a solid 3-0 win.

Two days later, the Canton boys welcomed Wilmington to Metropolis Rink and delivered arguably their most complete performance of the season to date.

“We out-shot them for the game 43-7,” noted Shuman afterwards. “We really dominated the game defensively and that kind of led to a lot of our offense.”

Senior Jeff Chaput tallied his second goal of the playoffs just seven seconds into the contest, and from there the Bulldogs were off to the races, netting five more goals while barely allowing Wilmington any room to breathe whenever they touched the puck.

Junior Brian Middleton also had his second postseason goal in the win, and fellow junior Pat Drury caught up with his classmates with a two-goal outing.

Freshman defenseman Teddy Shuman also had a big goal for the hosts against Wilmington — his second in his last three games — and senior captain AJ Thomas rounded out the scoring in the 6-0 win.

Sophomore Travis Thomas, AJ’s younger brother, picked up two key assists and was one of the best players on the ice, according to Shuman. “Travis has been phenomenal so far this postseason and has probably been one of our best forwards in the first two games,” he said.

Thomas also had a goal in the opening win against Medford and is currently tied for the team lead in postseason scoring with freshman Mike Thomas (no relation), who has three assists.

Shuman said a lot of credit should also go to the Canton defensemen — particularly the top six of James Young, Matt Anderson, Leo Owens, Griffin Hughes, Teddy Shuman and Jack Lauro — who have been rock solid for the Bulldogs over the past several games.

Sophomore goalie Colin Davis has also stepped up and had some key stops in both playoff wins to date.

With another victory Wednesday night against Newburyport, the Bulldogs would move on to the Division 2 state semifinals, where they would await the winner of No. 2 Duxbury versus 10th seeded Wakefield. Others still in contention for a Final Four spot include No. 4 Walpole, No. 5 Silver Lake, No. 8 Hopkinton, and No. 17 Norwood, who upset top-seeded Tewksbury 5-2 in the Round of 16.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Mar 9 2023. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.