Mashpee Hockey Team Has Win Streak Halted

By: Rich Maclone
Published: 01/15/10

The bus to the rink showed up late to Mashpee High School on Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately when it arrived at the Bridgewater Ice Arena it didn’t carry with it the same team who had suited up for the Mashpee High/UCT hockey team over the last few games.

The Falcons gave a flat performance against Carver on the road and saw their four-game winning streak come to a crashing halt as they dropped a 3-2 decision. “I just don’t think that they were ready,” Coach Shawn Chicoine said.

Mashpee is now 5-5 overall and 1-2 in the South Shore League.
MHS/UCT grabbed the lead in the first period on a shorthanded goal by Liam Sullivan at the 11:42 mark. Tony Bartolomei, who has been factoring in a ton of scoring for the Falcons of late, intercepted a pass by the Crusaders and dumped it into the zone for Sullivan, who beat the defense, swung around the net and tucked the puck under the goalie on a wrap-around.

Even with the lead going into the first intermission, Chicoine said that he could tell something was amiss. “They didn’t have any fire. They had the lead, but something was missing. You could feel it.”

The Crusaders drew even early in the second, scoring just 20 seconds into the period. MHS would get it back, and take a 2-1 lead into the second intermission, when Sullivan got his second of the night on a power play. Taylor Nickerson and Kyle Murray assisted on the goal.

That was the end of the scoring for the Falcons. The Crusaders would draw even just 55 seconds into the third period and then got the eventual game-winner at the 6:09 mark of the third. CJ Bradford tucked in a second shot under Connor Tremarche when the MHS goalie was unable to completely cover the puck up in front of the net with players swarming around him. Tremarche was one of the bright spots in the game for MHS/UCT as the senior netminder made 27 saves in the contest.

Mashpee had run its winning streak to four with a 6-2 win at Middleborough. The Falcons netted two goals in the first period and then outscored the Sachems 4-1 in the second.

Dan Toth scored the first of the game for MHS/UCT with assists going to Nickerson and Frank Inzirillo midway through the first. Then, two minutes later, Murray got his team’s second goal.

Middleborough cut the lead to 2-1 early in the second period, but then the Falcons blew it open, scoring four in a row. Nickerson got the first one of the second, followed by back-to-back-to-back goals by Sullivan over a span of four minutes. Bartolomei picked up assists on all three.

A day earlier, at home against Harwich, the Falcons won a slugfest, 7-5, as Sullivan eclipsed the 100-point mark for his career. The forward needed four points heading into the game and got exactly that many as he had two goals and two assists in the win.

MHS outscored the Rough Riders 3-1 in the first period, with the goals coming from Bartolomei, Murray, and Nickerson. MHS was up 3-0 before Harwich got on the board midway through the period.

Each team got a goal in the second period. Sullivan, who had assisted on one of the first period goals, made it a 4-1 game for the Falcons with an unassisted goal. Carver then got that one back 11 seconds later to make it 4-2 after two.

The third period was downright wild, with each team netting three goals. Mashpee struck first, on a goal by Bartolomei, but HHS came back to make it 5-3. Nickerson was then set up by Toth to make it a 6-3 game, but the Rough Riders answered with back-to-back goals, cutting it to 6-5 with under four minutes left. Sullivan then reached his milestone, and put the game out of reach with just over two minutes left as he fired in a pass from Bartolomei to make it 7-5.

The Falcons are back in action tomorrow afternoon, in Hyannis at Kennedy Rink, against Hull, at 4 o’clock. Then, on Monday, they will play at 2 PM in Hyannis against Abington.

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