Falmouth Hockey Hosts 15th Annual Black Dog Classic

By: Rich Maclone
Published: 02/25/11

For three glorious minutes in the second period the Falmouth High School boys’ ice hockey team was able to seriously consider their chances at scoring an upset that people would have talked about for years to come. Unfortunately the Boston College High School boys’ ice hockey team was not about to let the Clippers fulfill those high hopes.

The third-ranked Eagles scored three power play goals and pulled away from Falmouth High last night in the championship game of the 15th annual Black Dog Cape Cod Classic, winning the finale of the tourney by a 5-2 score. The Clippers will have to wait at least one more year to win the tourney for the first time. Last night marked just the second time that FHS had played in the marquee game.

“I’m proud of my kids, the way they came out and played today. You can’t give a team like that that many power play chances and expect to win, but we gave it everything that we had,” FHS Head Coach Buddy Ferreira said following the game.

FHS falls to 9-10-3 overall on the season, but despite their sub-.500 record, FHS is making its plans for the state tournament. After the way FHS played at the Classic, against some of the top Division I programs in the state, no one is going to like to see FHS come up against them on the MIAA brackets. Falmouth will be the last team in the field after qualifying due to a second place finish in the Atlantic Coast League.

BC High struck for the game’s only goal in the first period, a nice shot by Chris Laliberte midway through the stanza. Falmouth rallied back to score the tying goal early in period two when Matt Kinchla collected his second of the tournament as the sophomore forward intercepted a pass out of the corner in the high slot and let it rip. BC High keeper Pat Honeywell was caught off guard and the puck beat him to the glove side.

But the high-flying Eagles came right back three minutes later and netted two goals over a span of just 94 seconds to regain control. The go-ahead goal came on one of the Eagles’ seven power plays of the night on a shot by JC Brassard that Terrence Durkin tipped by Brandon Moore (26 saves). Shortly after that the Eagles got another power play strike, this time from Steve DeForge, who used a nifty move in front of the net to deposit the puck behind Moore at the 6:43 mark.

The Eagles added two more in the third, both off the stick of Andrew White, who collected them in a span of just nine seconds. The first one came on a cross from Laliberte as White tapped it by Moore on the far post. The forward then broke down the left wing off the ensuing draw and one-handed a shot up and over Moore’s shoulder at 2:32 to make it a 5-1 game.

Falmouth, which was the only team in the Classic to score a goal against BC High, made things more respectable with a goal at the 13:10 mark. Justin Taylor let one rip from the the high slot that bested backup keeper Connor Maloney. Kinchla and Durham Ghelfi assisted on the goal.

FHS’ PJ Moore was named the winner of the Garrett Regan Award, which is in honor of the longtime Hingham coach that passed away last year. “It goes to the type of kid that works hard. He isn’t your best player, but he gives it everything he’s got, Garrett’s kind of player,” Ferreira said.

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