Sandwich Champs Earn Chance To Defend At Garden

Nantucket had a rough ride over on a stormy Saturday morning, and the ride back was not much better after the Knights dismantled the upstart Whalers with three methodically well-played periods. The attack was led by senior Colin McIver, who scored a hat trick with a goal in each period. Fellow senior co-captain Mitchell Norkevicius made 16 saves to record the shutout in a 3-0 win by the Knights over upstart Nantucket.

“All year long, we’ve had to find different ways to win games, and this group has really done it,” Sandwich Head Coach Jordan Mohre said. “High-scoring games, low-scoring games, physical games, speed games, we’ve found a way, and I’m really proud of the boys with the target that we’ve had on our back all year long, to get everybody’s best games. We’ve stood tall to the challenge, and I think that it’s prepared us to be where we are.”

In a physical and chippy affair, Sandwich made the Whalers pay for their mistakes. The first goal of the game was fired in by McIver on the power play at 7:29 to give the team a lead it would never relinquish. Walking the blue line, McIver snapped a frisbee from the high slot, using a big screen in front from Silas Ohman, and found the top corner for the lead. The goal was also the 100th point of the senior’s career.

McIver said he was proud of the season he has had and the milestone that he hit, but his focus is not on individual marks at this point.

“It’s cool, and I couldn’t have done it without my linemates Jack (Connolly) and Chris (Cardillo). Obviously, it’s a great achievement, and I’m wicked proud of it, but we’ve got work to do. We want to win,” he said.

He added a controversial goal late in the second period to make it 2-0, chopping one through goalie Griffin Starr to give his team a big boost heading to the locker room. Then he added the dagger in the third period, firing in his own rebound to finish things off. McIver said he understood where the goalie was coming from, but he was happy the refs saw it in Sandwich’s favor.

“To be honest, it was a little questionable. I thought it was covered, but I saw it pop out, and the ref was waving it good. I dove for it and poked it in,” McIver said.

He went on to add one more in the third period to finish things off. Devin Mahoney set it up with a shot from the point. McIver flicked the puck on net. Starr made the initial save, but the Sandwich all-star potted his own rebound to put the game away.

Getting anything past Norkevicius was impossible for the Whalers. The senior was on top of his game in goal, stopping everything that came his way, and the defense—led by Shane Corcoran and Logan Munk—did a good job of keeping the majority of the action away from the high-quality scoring areas.

“The defense definitely helped me get the shutout. I felt like our breakout passes were there, the forwards were in the spots on the walls where they have to go,” the goalie said.

McIver is confident his team will be able to get the job done against Norwell.

“We just play our game. We play a fast, physical game and we know that we’re the best team in this division,” he said. “I think that we deserve (to be going back to the Garden). Like I said, I think that we’re the best team in this division. We played hard all year. Every team had our number, and we came ready to play every game.”

Norkevicius agreed with McIver. The seniors were a big part of last year’s history-making team, and they would love to help lead this team to become the first-ever back-to-back Knights' teams to win at TD Garden.

“During the season it was definitely our goal to get back. We won it last year, so every team has been gunning for us. There’s only one team left, and we just have to go out there and play our game,” Norkevicius said.