Wildcats Beat #2 Loomis in Overtime

by Team Reporter Nate Gordon ’16

Sophomore forward JoJo Carbone darted down the right side of the rink chasing a puck that had been flipped high in the air into the offensive zone. He beat a defender and just twenty-three seconds into overtime Carbone ’17 slipped the puck past the Loomis (17-3-0) goaltender. This goal gave Williston Boys Hockey (10-7-1) a 4-3 victory over the number two ranked team in New England on Wednesday, February 2nd.

Carbone said after the game, “[The puck] was chipped into the right corner, the [defenseman] got it and I put my body against the boards to keep the puck in and just through it on net.”

The first period ended in a one-to-one tie with Jack Kelly ’16 scoring Williston’s goal. The Wildcats went into the third period with a 2-1 lead. Less than four minutes into the period, the Pelicans tied the game. But on Williston’s next and last power play of the game, senior defenseman Chris Dumont passed the puck to senior forward Jared Karas who unleashed a slapshot that sent the puck into the back of the net.

Karas said of his goal, “We’ve just been working well on the power play, I saw Dumont slide it over and the [defense] gave me a little bit of room, so I decided to put it on net. Luckily it just found its way through, so just a great team play.”

As the Pelicans had each time in this game, Loomis scored to tie the game with just under three minutes to play in the third period.

At no point in this game were the Wildcats ever losing. Yet, Williston never held more than a one goal advantage over the visiting Pelicans. Loomis took control of the first period after the Wildcats scored their first goal. The second eighteen minutes of this game was one of the best periods Williston had played all season. The team put pressure on Loomis’ defense and the Wildcats did not have any defensive lapses.  Brandon Bork ’15 scored midway through the period.

The team’s one mishap in this game was conceding a power play goal to let the Pelicans tie the game at one in the first period.

The backbone of the team in this win was junior goaltender Shane Mason. Mason stopped 23 of 26 shots (.885%). Mason said after the game, “We got a lot of shots out there, we were shooting from everywhere. They had a good goalie, but we put enough on him, eventually you’re going to [score].”

In USHR’s latest poll posted on February 2nd, Loomis was ranked just behind Exeter, the top New England prep team. Today’s loss was Loomis’ second in the past ten days. This is uncharacteristic of a team that started its season with nine straight wins.

This was the Wildcats’ fourth consecutive win. In 2015, the team has a 7-2-1 record.  This makes up for the team’s 3-5 2014 record. At this point, Williston has just seven games remaining on its regular season schedule ending on February 28th. Of those seven teams, the Wildcats have defeated four of them already this season. It is still too soon to start crunching numbers to predict whether or not the Wildcats will make the playoffs. Last season, the Wildcats finished the regular season with a 13-10-2 regular season record. So if that is any indication of this year’s team, the Wildcats might just be playing in March

The team has a few days off for Williston’s winter long weekend. The Wildcats’ next game is next Wednesday, February 11th, at Northfield Mount Hermon

About today’s win, Carbone ’17 said, “It’s huge, especially going into break. We ended on a good note against a good team. It’s good for confidence.”

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