Evan Simmons scored on a breakaway with 7 minutes, 30 seconds left to play on Saturday night and Greenfield High School opened the hockey season with a 6-5 victory over Easthampton High School in Fay-Wright Division action at Collins-Moylan Arena in Greenfield.
The Green Wave led 5-2 in the second period but Easthampton scored three consecutive goals — including twice in the first five minutes of the third period — to tie the game. Simmons, one of the fastest skaters in the league, had gotten numerous opportunities to score earlier in the game due to his speed, and was able to make good on the game-winning goal. He started the play in his own defensive zone, breaking up an Eagles possession, and then turned on the jets to get up ice and break in on Easthampton goalie Mike McColgan, whom he beat top shelf for the go-ahead goal.
Greenfield, which took a number of inopportune penalties according to head coach Adam Bouchard, had to kill off two power plays to preserve the lead, and goalie Riley Drew made 13 saves in the third period to help the Wave to the win.
“Coming in against an Easthampton team that has handled us pretty easily the past couple of years, and coming out with a victory in front of a packed home crowd was great for this program,” Bouchard said.
The Green Wave led 3-1 after the first period but it was the Eagles who struck first when they got one of their two power play goals on the evening from Jack Delisle 6:14 into the first period. Greenfield tied it three minutes later when strong forechecking from the top line produced a turnover and Tyler Townsley scored from Simmons and Tyler Miner.
Greenfield then got a pair of goals in the final 65 seconds of the opening period. Townsley made it 2-1 with his second of the game when he took a pass and toe-dragged around the final Easthampton defender at the blue line and then beat McColgan. Simmons and Miner also assisted on that goal.
Then, with eight second left, Simmons broke in on McColgan and was chopped down by a Eagles’ defender, but he managed to get the shot off and Miner was able to corral the rebound for his first of the year.
The Wave pushed the lead to 4-1 two minutes into the second period when Miner scored on the power play from Simmons and Townsley.
Easthampton responded three minutes later when Matt Grimaldi scored on a great individual effort to cut the deficit to 4-2. Greenfield got the goal back on a 5-on-3 power play later in the period when Matteo Velez went to the front of the net and potted his first career goal on an assist from Booie Harris.
Easthampton went on the power play late in the second period and scored with three seconds left as Jake Batchelder scored from C.J. Tenczar, to make it 5-3 entering the intermission. The Eagles came out flying in the third, and Garren Fugiel and Batchelder scored in the first five minutes to even the score.
Greenfield used two goalies on the night. Finn O’Connor started and stopped 13 of 15 shots before giving way to Drew, who turned aside 19 shots the rest of the way.
McColgan made 25 saves in the loss.
Bouchard also credited the solid defensive play of Sarah O’Sullivan and Jillian Johnson, both of whom made their debuts for the Wave.
Greenfield travels to South Hadley High School Wednesday night at 8.
South Hadley 10, Turners Falls 3 — Trevor Ouimet and Nick Thibault each scored twice on Saturday to lead South Hadley High School past Turners Falls High School, 10-3, in the Fay-Wright Division opener for both teams at Collins-Moylan Arena.
The Tigers led 2-1 after the first period but blew things open with four goals in each of the final two frames. Ben Watkins, Corey Calkins, Sean Doherty, Will Hunter, Billy Scott and Michael Mazza also scored for the Tigers.
Domonic Rosazza, Watkins and Doherty each finished with two helpers on the night, while Mazza, Thibault, Alex Joao, Ouimet, Calkins and Andrew Brunelle had one assist apiece.
South Hadley outshot the Indians, 49-25. Jordan Lavallee and Nate Pelletier split time in the Indians’ goal. Lavallee finished with 21 saves, while Pelletier stopped 18 shots. Jake Remillard made 22 saves for the Tigers.
Turners Falls scored once in each period. Bryce Jordan and Bryan Baumann each had a goal and an assist, while Mason Whiteman scored the other goal. Dalton DeForest, Doug Hanieski and Ethan LaFleur each added an assist.
Turners Falls returns to ice on Friday at 5:30 p.m. when it faces Wahconah Regional High School in the first round of the Rabbit Graves Memorial Tournament at Collins-Moylan Arena.
Eagles third at Athol
Kyle Brunelle and Spencer Telega each finished second in their respective weight classes to help Franklin County Technical School to a third place finish in the 14-team field at the Red Raider Invitational Tournament Saturday in Athol.
Four local teams were on hand at the tournament and the Eagles had the best finish of the four.
Natick High School won the tournament, while Taconic High School was second. Brunelle lost to Minnechaug Regional High School’s Sean Monteiro with 40 seconds left in the third period of the championship bout at 106 pounds to settle for second, while Telega dropped a 5-2 decision in the championship match at 160 pounds to Hampshire Regional High School’s DJ Willard to finish second.
The Eagles had two wrestlers finish second, and two more take fourth on the day. Chris Ludwig pinned Hampshire’s Mason Willard at the 2:59 mark in the third-place match at 145 pounds, and Mike Mattson bested Brandon Burke of Mahar Regional School, 4-1, in the third-place bout at 285. Jordan Bashaw came in fourth at 152 after he lost, 14-7, in the third-place bout to Alan Smith of Natick, and Caileb Milton was pinned by Athol’s Trevor Mousseau 1:20 into the third-place bout at 182 pounds.
• Mahar had its best-ever finish at the Red Raider Invitational with a fourth-place showing.
Freshman Todd Chaisson was among three Senator wrestlers to finish second in their weight classes on the day. Chaisson wrestled his way into the finals but lost to Natick’s Ben Steenkamp 49 seconds into the title bout. Ben Gilmore also picked up a second-place finish for the Senators as he made the finals at 170 pounds but dropped a 15-6 major decision to Natick’s Kyle Bastarache in the finals. Chad Marcoux was the third Senator to make the finals and he also fell to a Natick wrestler in the 182-pound title match when he was pinned 1:10 into the second period by Tim Ramstrom.
Adam Clement came in fourth at 132 pounds as he fell to Natick’s Joe Castilleno in the second period of the third-place match. Brandon Burke was the other Mahar wrestler to take fourth place, losing the aforementioned third-place match at 285 pounds to Franklin Tech’s Mike Mattson.
• Frontier finished ninth as a team. Matt Carlson capped off his first-ever varsity tournament by winning the 285-pound weight class. The junior won all three of his bouts by way of second-period pin, including his victory over Granby High School’s Brad Taft 30 seconds into the second period of the championship bout.
Junior Connor Pettis finished second in the 126-pound class as he won his first three matches, including two by pin, before falling to Natick’s Jacob Opela one minute into the second period of the championship bout. Pettis’ quickest win of the day came 14 seconds into his semifinal match against Montachusett Regional Technical High School’s Nikolas Gaulin. Sophomore Josiah Murry lost his first bout of the day but won his final three to earn a third-place finish at 138. Murry pinned Athol’s Joey Gray 1:22 into the match of the third-place bout.