Williston Beats the Berkshire Bears, 5-2 

When the last bolt of sunshine hit the Berkshire Mountains on Saturday night, Williston headed to the dressing room after three hard-fought periods with its second win inarow and its first in Sheffield, MA since January 10th, 2009 when Williston won the contest 3-2.  This time, Williston won 5-2. 

Williston looked to get things going quickly on Saturday afternoon, and that they did scoring just a 1:04 into the game.  Williston worked the puck deep into the Berkshire zone and Berkshire attempted to clear the puck up the lefthand boards.  A fortuitous jump by d-man Hunter Wilson enabled the junior defenseman to scoop the puck off the wall and let a quick shot that Berkshire goalie, Jed Baliotti, saved with his right pad but the rebound zipped right to Connor Hagness’s stick who buried the rebound.  Wilson got his second assist of the game when David Novotny tried to get the puck from the corner to Wilson standing at the middle of the blue line.  Berkshire was able to get a stick on the pass but was not able to gather the puck.  Wilson took a shot that was deflected into the air, hit Baliotti in the chest and bounced onto Novotny’s stick who was skating to the front of the net; he buried his opportunity at the 5:10 mark.  

Williston got their third of the period on the power play when Tyler Varin got the puck on the left point and passed to his d-partner Will Tripp. Tripp skated to the middle of the ice and put a shot on Balliotti, who appeared screened in front.  The goal was the final straw for the Berkshire coaching staff who pulled Baliotti.  The game would remain 3-0 for the remainder of the period and for all of the second period.   

Berkshire finally got on the board in the third only to be answered by Shaul Mitton who received a pass from Varin sending him on a breakaway.  Mitton trucked down the right wing, approached Berkshire goalie Sam Woessner, and beat the junior on a backhand, top shelf.  Word on the street is that there was a monkey running out of the building and into the night as Mitton finally got him off his back, netting his first goal of the year.  The Williston faithful hope that this can get the Charlettetown, PEI senior on the right track from here on out.  Berkshire got a second goal with 1:50 left but that was all they could muster as Hagness closed out the game with an empty-netter.  The game puck went to Mitton for the game.  Trevor Corsello had a splendid afternoon in net making timely saves at important moments.  He finished the game with 43 saves.   

Williston has a three-game week coming up.  First, the Wildcats head to New England’s second-largest city and home of Polar Selzer on Wednesday afternoon against the Worcester Hilltoppers at 4 pm.  On Friday night, Williston is at Winchendon.  Then on Friday, Williston plays its first home game in the New Year and first in nine games when Berkshire comes to town for a 4:45 tilt.  Good seats are still available.  See you there! 

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