The MVRHS boys hockey team dropped the puck on a new season on Saturday against the Attleboro Bombardiers at the New England Sports Village in Attleboro, and lost a tight battle, 2-1. Hunter Meader scored on the power play off a nifty feed from freshman Jake Scott less than two minutes into the game, but Attleboro responded with a power-play goal of their own later in the first period, and notched the eventual game winner early in the second, shortly after a Vineyard penalty had expired.
The Vineyarders tilted the ice in their favor from the midpoint on. In the final 80 seconds, with goalie Michael Metcalf pulled for the extra attacker, MV had four quality chances to tie the game, but could not convert. Metcalf finished with 20 saves in a solid game between the pipes.
The Vineyard offense took a blow late in the game when sophomore forward Aiden Marek suffered a broken collarbone. He could possibly return to the lineup in six to eight weeks.
“We worked really hard for a good portion of the game,” Vineyard Coach Matt Mincone said. “We got better as the game went on. We hit two posts. It’s just little stuff, it’s focus. I thought we did a good job with our defensive unit. We were short a couple of guys, so we really played four, with a fifth filling in on defense, and then rotated the three forward lines. Everyone did a pretty good job for the most part. We’ll get better than that if we keep this team together. Losing Aiden hurts. He started to get his skates under him in the second period. It [the injury] happened in the last couple of minutes of the game. He just got squished against the boards.”
MV plays Cape Tech in the home opener at the Martha’s Vineyard Ice Arena on Dec. 13 at 4:30 pm.
