The high school’s varsity hockey team, the last team standing among the winter sports postseason competitors, ignited the Island community’s spirit on Monday when they defeated the Bourne High School Canalmen in round two of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) state playoffs.
The Vineyarders, ranked seventh in Division 4, took down Bourne (ranked 23rd) 5–2 on Monday, in a game that attracted a massive fan turnout at the Martha’s Vineyard Ice Arena, with at least 500 tickets sold. They also took down Dennis-Yarmouth (ranked 26th) 6–0 at home in the first round of the playoffs late last month, and are now preparing for the quarterfinals.
Going into the game, the Vineyarders had the same game plan as always: Play fast, hard, and tenacious. But knowing their season is at stake every game, a new sense of urgency drives them this week.
“I think our game plan was the same game plan we have every game,” said senior captain Griffin Callahan (No. 2) after the game. “We come as a whole unit –– if you’re not playing, you’re bringing the energy on the bench. And this is no different, except if we lose, we’re done for the season, so the boys know what’s at stake, and we’re kind of just doing us.
“When we came out and did warm-ups, that was probably the most people I’ve ever played in front of, and it was just, it was electric,” he added.
Sophomore Ryan Heidt (No. 9) for the Vineyard opened the scoring in the first period. With six minutes left in the period, Heidt made a move on a Bourne defender and took a successful quick shot short-side high, assisted by sophomore Donnie Gregory (No. 12).
Going into the second period, the Vineyarders held a 1–0 lead, and only 24 seconds in, they lit up the scoreboard again. Sophomore defenseman Angus Cummings (No. 28) broke the puck out of the defensive zone with momentum, carrying the puck into Bourne’s zone and sending a pass to the slot. Callahan recovered the puck amid Bourne pressure, and took a quick low shot to the left corner of Bourne’s net, bringing the score to 2–0.
Cummings created multiple offensive plays on defensive breakouts, skating the puck the length of the ice and opening up scoring opportunities.
“When you gain speed around the net, for me, I either look up, see if anyone’s open, and if not, I just wheel it up,” said Cummings. “When I made one move on a defender on the left side of the net, I had all that room, so I just took it, and I knew that my captain Griff Callahan was there, so I just tossed in the middle, and we got the goal.”
The Vineyarders scored again four minutes into the second, starting with another breakout by Cummings, who carried the puck deep into the corner in Bourne’s zone, where he cycled it to Heidt. Heidt passed to junior Peter Williamson (No. 6) in the slot, who quickly redirected it between the Canalmen’s goaltender’s legs and gave the Vineyard a 3–0 lead.
Sophomore Joseph Alton (No. 24) continued the momentum minutes later. Senior captain Joseph Medeiros (No. 15) freed the puck up after winning a battle in Bourne’s slot, and with Medeiros smothered by Bourne defenders, Alton swung in and buried it to increase the Vineyard’s lead to 4–0.
“I was up high, and I saw the puck go loose, so I crashed the net hard. It just ended up on my stick, and I had it in the back of the net,” said Alton after the game.
As the second came to an end, Bourne elevated the physicality, and through the chaos, snuck a goal in before the buzzer. A low shot from the corner struck the Vineyard’s far-side post and went into the net. It was 4–1 in the Vineyard’s favor going into the third period.
“If it gets physical, we just try to respond on the scoreboard,” said Callahan.
“They started to turn up the intensity, so we had to do the same thing,” added Medeiros. “I think we just have to stick to our game, stick to what we know. We don’t feed into their physical play. We just play our game.”
A slight sense of worry fell over the Vineyard rink as Bourne scored a quick goal to open the third, but the Vineyarders still held a 4–2 lead. Intensity rose both on the ice and among the crowds as time dwindled. A penalty on the Vineyard with 3:32 left in the game increased fans’ worries, but the Vineyarders’ penalty kill held strong, and junior goaltender Russell Coogan (No. 1) stopped some strong scoring opportunities from Bourne.
Bourne pulled their goalie in the last minute, attempting to score and tighten the gap on the scoreboard, but Alton was able to find the back of the empty net from the Vineyarders’ zone, setting the Vineyard up for the round of eight with a 5–2 finish.
The Vineyarders are set to play against Littleton High School (19–1), who are ranked second in Division 4, on Thursday at 4 pm at the John A. Ryan Skating Arena in Watertown.
“It feels great –– we’re not even close to finishing. We just have to focus on what’s ahead of us and take it game by game,” said Callahan of securing the quarterfinal game against Littleton. “We won this round, but we got three more to go. So we kind of just need to stay focused and not get too ahead of ourselves.
“Big props to our coaching staff,” he added, “because they turned this program around, and the level of play compared with last year is just crazy, and we couldn’t have done it without our coaching staff, and obviously the players.”
