Arlington rides fast start to top St. John’s Prep, 3-1

STONEHAM — Top-ranked Arlington scored three straight first period goals and never looked back, going on to defeat fourth-seeded St. John’s Prep, 3-1, in round two of the Super Eight tournament at Stoneham Arena.

The Spy Ponders move on to play Pope Francis on Saturday, while the Eagles move to the one-loss bracket to take on Catholic Memorial on Wednesday.

Arlington (18-1-4) came flying out of the gates, opening the scoring 8:25 into the first when Brendan Pigott collected a loose puck at the left post and deposited a backhander under the bar to make it 1-0.

Just 2:09 later, James Santagati (goal, assist) spun to his forehand ripping a low wrist shot from the high slot labelled just inside the left post.

Arlington made it 3-0 on the power play with just 47 seconds left in the period, as senior Brendan Jones unleashed a low, hard slap shot from the point through a sea of bodies in front that found it’s way to the back of the net.

“We may have seen some things where we wanted the pucks to go,” said Arlington head coach John Messuri. “We got some shots from some pretty good spots.”

Five different Arlington seniors combine for six points (three goals and three assists) in the first period alone.

The Spy Ponders took a five-minute major elbowing penalty 8:43 into the second, and St. John’s Prep (12-5-5) cashed in 1:24 into the power play as Edward Malolepszy spun from behind the goal before roofing a shot short side to cut the deficit to 3-1.

Arlington’s defense and goaltending took over from there, shutting the Eagles down the rest of the way, in large part thanks to senior goaltender Nathan Brennan turned aside 12 third period shots and 31 total.

“They’re a heavy team and grind hard, we knew it was going to take the whole game to win,” Messuri said. “We don’t give up a lot of goals…We try to play good team defense, that’s our foundation and we go from there.”

 

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/39cwsI0