Mission Accomplished: BHS Boys Hockey Wins Title

Freshman goalie Sean Cleary sure would have loved his third shutout of the season between the pipes, but the secondary prize may have been better.

Barnstable (11-1-3; 5-0-0) boys hockey not only defeated Old Colony League foe Bridgewater-Raynham for the second time this season, but the 3-1 road win Saturday night at the Bridgewater Ice Arena helped the Red Raiders to their first solo Old Colony title flag since the 1990-91 season.

Cleary stopped 18-of-19 shots in net allowing only a late third-period goal in a chippy contest which had each team pick up 10 penalties apiece, including two game-misconducts.  Barnstable's Ricky Patton and the Trojans' Matt Ives headed for the showers with 4:58 left in regulation after a donnybrook ensued.

"We are very happy with the outcome obviously so that gives us the league title outright," said Barnstable head coach, Scott Nickerson, in his fifth year at the helm.  "(The league title) is the first one in quite a few years and that's big for us.  One of our goals was to win the league, we accomplished that now obviosuly, but more importantly we are playing well defensively all over the ice."

During the post-game, Nickerson mentioned his defense - led by Will Toffey and Mark Brodd - and they were on point in this one limiting the Trojans' to only a third-period goal.  With the Trojans' Peter Drowne (21 saves) pulled from the net, Truman Daniels' tip-in tally in front of the crease saved B-R (9-4-1; 3-2-0) from the shutout with 31.4 to play in the third period.

But the game was already in hand as Kyle Fontaine started things off quickly with a goal at 3:42 of the first period on a two-on-one breakout out of the neutral zone along with junior winger Chris Harris, who picked up the assist.

In the second period, Danny Goncalves doubled up the Trojans' with his third goal of the season for a 2-0 Red Raiders lead at the 10:34 mark.

Fontaine then returned the favor to Harris assiting on the junior's third period acrobatic tally.  Harris was on his knees and spun around backwards with a backhanded flip that found the back of the net with just under 10 minutes left to play.

“I have a very good defensive team and we held them to limited shots, but (BR) had their opportunities, we didn’t give up a lot of rebounds, and (Cleary) made the saves," added Nickerson.

Bridgewater was 0-4 on the power play which had Barnstable's penalty-kill unit limit the Trojans' to a combined five shots in total on their man-advantage. 

Barnstable's last defeat was on December 29 to Atlantic Coast League's Plymouth South in a 3-2 loss, but the Red Raiders have not missed a step since with eight straight wins and a 9-0-1 record in their last ten, with a 3-3 tie also to the Panthers. 

"Plymouth South is a very good team - teams seem to want to sell them short and (Plymouth) can be as inconsistent as all heck, but our first real big game was Bridgewater," said Nickerson. "And we beat em 4-1 at our place and that gave us the idea that we had a chance to win the league."