AV Sports - Youth Hockey

by J. Facey

If the Saugus Centurions came into Friday nights High School playoff game at the Ice Station Valencia expecting an easy win over A.V. they were only half right. They did win the game, but it wasn’t easy.

The A.V. Northerners put together one of their best efforts of the season while goalie Brian Walker single handedly kept the score close through all three periods despite being severely out-shot but the Centurions eventually prevailed with a 5-2 win.

Walker stunned the league leading Saugus offense making one great save after another and stopping 23 shots in the first period alone, one more than Centurions goalie Kyle Stevens faced the entire game, to keep the score at 0-0 after one.

Mike Havas finally found a way to get one by Walker at 7:54 of the second period redirecting a perfect centering pass from the corner by Josh Salameh. Billy Knights scored at the 4:57 mark to make it 2-0 Saugus and Salameh made it 3-0 at 3:38. Tyler White answered for the Northerners at 2:58 to close the gap to 3-1 at the end of the second.

In the third period Saugus kept up the offensive pressure but were unable to increase their lead until help arrived from the on ice officials who called back to back marginal penalties against the Northerners less than a minute apart at 12:46 and again at 11:58. The ref’s unexpected gift of a two man advantage so late in such a close game was all the Centurions would need to put the contest out of reach and end the Northerners season.

They showed their appreciation when Anthony Jewett scored on the five on three power play at the 11:00 minute mark putting them up 4-1. The Northerners came right back with a goal at 7:03 by Kyle Rice to close the gap to 4-2 but Alyssa Wohlfeiler scored with 2:07 left crashing into goalie Brian Walker in the process with no call for a final score of 5-2.

Getting the win in net for Saugus was Kyle Stevens who wasn’t pressured often but came up big when he had to including a breakaway stop on Kyle Rice in the third period that would have cut the lead to one goal.
“The Particulars”

Shots on goal: 58-22 Saugus

Turning point: See shots on goal

Star of the Game: Brian Walker by a landslide.

What he said: A.V. head coach Dennis Gilbert on his team’s performance “I couldn’t ask for much more out of these guys. We played the first place team tonight and scared the heck out of them. We were just a couple of bad bounces and missed calls from winning this game and they know it”.

Up next: The Centurions move on to the semi final round of the 2007 High School Hockey season at the Ice Station Valencia