Boys hockey gets one back in Lowell

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The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School varsity hockey team continued building on their strong season this past week, taking their first defeat of the season against the Barnstable High School Red Hawks at home on Thursday before bouncing back to secure a decisive win over the Lowell High School Red Raiders at Umass Lowell’s Tsongas Center on Saturday. 

The Island hockey team narrowly fell short of victory to a tough Barnstable team with a final score of 2-1 and defeated Lowell 5-0. The week brings the Vineyards record for the season to 6-1-2. 

The first period of the showdown on Thursday against Barnstable was mostly a back and forth battle, each team struggling to find clean scoring opportunities. With 3:37 remaining in the first period, Junior Barnstable center, Braden McCarthy (No. 7), broke the stalemate, striking twine from just inside the top of the right wing circle, with a low shot just above Henry Wansiewicz (No. 30) pads. 

The Vineyard were ready to respond on the next play, as Nate Averill (No. 4) had a breakaway opportunity, finessing a five hole attempt but unfortunately Barnstable’s goalie, Bob Doherty (No. 35) had it tightly locked down. 

Intensity rose as the second period kicked off, continuing the back and forth battle, until with thirteen minutes left in the period, Vineyard senior, Sol Donnelly (No. 19) tied it up with a bar-down rocket through traffic, shot from just inside the tops of the right wing circles. The crowd erupted for their Island team and the score was now 1-1. 

Despite a Vineyard powerplay opportunity following a boarding call on Barnstable Junior Andrew Harmon (No. 8), the Island boys were unable to capitalize, every shot opportunity was met with a wall of red. 

Barnstable regained the lead with 5:23 to go in the second period when Senior Tyler Gualberto (No. 9) walked around the Vineyards defense with a fancy toe drag, stuffing the puck short side as he skated by the net. 

As the second period came to an end, the Vineyard squad clawed back some momentum, but with 1:27 left in the second period, a questionable unsportsmanlike penalty was called on Vineyard Junior Sol Donnelly (No. 19) for shooting after the whistle. Instead of going into the  third with momentum, the Vineyard had to kill 33 seconds of a penalty. 

After successfully killing off the penalty the Vineyard were back in the saddle, and on their own powerplay after Barnstable Junior Braden McCarthy (No. 7) received an elbowing penalty. However Barnstable’s penalty kill stood strong once again, keeping the Vineyard at bay. 

With 1:19 left in the game, the Vineyard called a timeout and pulled their goalie to create a six-on-five advantage. Intensity on the ice and in the crowd surged as the Island team pressed for the equalizer, forcing multiple face-offs in Barnstable’s zone. Despite the pressure and a late timeout from Barnstable, the Vineyarders couldn’t find the twine and the game concluded 2-1. 

“The whole thing I’m trying to sell them is to respect the game and give that last minute attitude and effort every game and not wait for some adversity to see what type of character we have when we decide to push it – push it from the get-go,” said head coach Matt Mincone, after Thursday night’s loss. “The effort was there and I think it’s a building block for us. We got one loss now, let’s try not to have two; we didn’t match effort in some of the battles that were important, which we will turn right around for our game Saturday.”

In Saturday’s game against Lowell High School, the Vineyarders were ready to bounce back, securing a 5-0 victory over the Red Raiders. 

According to coach Mincone, the boys played an all around good team game. 

“We had plenty of opportunities but we are fighting our shot selection, meaning we need to shoot with a purpose,” he said.  “Sometimes throwing the puck at the net does apply but if there’s a wall in front of you, shoot it low and play pinball with it rather than hitting someone in the butt or the back.” 

“I also don’t think we are controlling enough faceoffs, if I can get a couple of guys to really make that their thing, it’d be helpful, and it’s coming,” Mincone added. 

Up next of the Vineyard hockey schedule is the Nauset Regional high school Warriors on Thursday at the YMCA of Martha’s Vineyard’s Ice Arena.