Amherst Regional High School scored three goals in a 43-second span of the first period and went on to defeat Greenfield High School, 6-1, in a Fay-Wright Division hockey game Monday night at Orr Rink on the campus of Amherst College.
The game started out close and the Green Wave nearly took a 1-0 lead early when Evan Simmons fired a shot that was turned aside by Amherst goalie Clayton Bowser. Tyler Miner and Tlyer Townsley were both parked on the doorstep and fought for the rebound, but Bowser kept the puck out of the net and the game remained scoreless.
Amherst began to apply steady pressure after the three-minute mark and the Green Wave defense finally broke with 6 minutes, 41 seconds left in the period, when Nathan Masteralexis scored on an assist from Nick Foster. That opened the floodgates and Jake Balderston scored 32 seconds later on Foster’s second helper of the day. Amherst needed just 11 seconds to strike again and again it was Balderston who potted the goal, this time on assists from Masteralexis and Gio Rivera.
“They put the pressure on us and were able to capitalize there,” Greenfield coach Adam Bouchard said. “It was just constant offensive pressure again us. We held and we held but we finally broke.”
Amherst tallied one more goal before the end of the first period when Jared Tripp scored with 3:37 left on an assist from Max Hopely. The Hurricanes added to the lead with one goal in the second period when Matt Longto scored from Jake Riel to send the hosts into the third with a 5-0 lead.
Greenfield struck just 37 seconds into the third as Tyler Miner scored on assists from Simmons and Sean O’Sullivan, but that was all Greenfield got against Bowser, who finished with 12 saves in the win. Masteralexis added his second goal of the game with 1:28 to play on Foster’s third assist of the day to finish out the scoring.
Riley Drew started the game and allowed four goals on 14 shots in the first period. Finn O’Connor came on and made 25 saves over the final two periods.
“Finn made a lot of big saves,” Bouchard said. “He kind of stood on his head for two periods and made it respectable. We’ve got a great goaltender battle going and they are pushing each other.”
Greenfield hosts a big game on Saturday when it takes on Belchertown High School at 4:30 at Collins-Moylan Arena in Greenfield. The game could go a long way toward deciding if the Wave qualifies for the postseason this winter. The teams already met earlier this season at the Mullins Center Practice Rink and Belchertown came away with a 5-4 victory.