Sports
Tewksbury's Sodergren, DiGiorgio Lead Shawsheen Into Finals
Rams shoot out victory over Wayland has a definite Tewksbury flavor.
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There will be more than one team full of Tewksbury hockey players competing for a sectional championship this weekend.
The Shawsheen Tech hockey team features no less than eight players from Tewksbury on its 2010-2011 roster, and none were more important than Mike DiGiorgio and Joe Sodergren as the Rams edged Wayland, 3-2 in a shoot out in the Division 3 North Sectional semi-finals Thursday night at the Chelmsford Forum.
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The win earns Shawsheen a spot in the sectional championship game Saturday evening against Marblehead, which topped Dracut, 5-1, in the other semi-final game on Thursday.
Sodergren, who led Shawsheen in scoring with 23 goals and 31 assists coming into the game, scored an unassisted goal in the first period and netted the lone goal in the shoot out after Shawsheen and Wayland had played to a 2-2 tie through three regulation periods and a 12-minute sudden death overtime.
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Sodergren, a junior forward and Co-Player of The Year in the Commonwealth Athletic Conference this winter, took Shawsheen's first turn in the shoot out and beat Wayland goaltender Cogan Register on the backhand for the only goal the Rams would need.
Senior netminder Ryan Maskell, of Wilmington, made the 1-0 advantage stand up for the Rams as he stopped all five Wayland shooters and Shawsheen took the 3-2 win.
DiGiorgio, also a junior from Tewksbury who centers the first line with Sodergren, scored Shawsheen's first goal in the opening period after the Rams had fallen behind, 1-0, just 12 seconds into the game. DiGiorgio had scored 25 goals and assisted on 25 others coming into the game, and had shared CAC Co-Player of the Year honors with Sodergren. The pair led Shawsheen Tech to a 10-0 conference record and the CAC championship this season.
"They've done it for us all season long," said Shawsheen coach Chuck Baker of Sodergren and DiGiorgio. "They're two very skilled players. All those goals haven't come against the bunnies in our league, either. They can score against anybody."
DiGiorgio and Sodergren proved that on Thursday, as Register was nearly unbeatable in the Wayland goal, turning aside more than 30 Shawsheen shots.
Wayland jumped out to a lightning fast 1-0 lead when Evan Barber scored just 12 seconds into the game, and the Rams were in the hole before they could get warmed up.
"That kind of deflated the energy we came out with," said Baker of the early Wayland goal. "But we've dealt with stuff like that in the past and we've come right back."
It didn't take Shawsheen long to respond as DiGiorgio answered with his team-leading 26th goal of the season less than three minutes later, slapping home the rebound of a Tom Price shot in front of the Warrior net.
Sodergren then gave Shawsheen a 2-1 lead with 4:20 to play in the first period, stealing the puck at center ice and breaking in alone to score an unassisted goal, his 24th of the season.
For the next two periods of regulation and the overtime period, the game was a battle between the two goaltenders, as both keepers made dozens of saves and frustrated opposing attackers time and time again.
Wayland notched the tying goal with 5:10 to go in the game, but that was the last time Maskell would allow anything to get past him. He shut down the Warriors in overtime, and stopped all five Wayland shooters in the shoot out, securing the win for his team.
"Ryan Maskell just stood on his head for us tonight," Baker said. "His rebound control wasn't great, but the way he played in the shoot out and the way he played at the end of the game was outstanding. I couldn't be happier with him."
Maskell, Sodergren and DiGiorgio will need to do more of the same Saturday if they hope to beat Marblehead, which earned the No. 2 seed in the bracket. The 'Headers have scored 111 goals in 24 regular season and state tournament games so far this season.
"It's going to have to be much better than it was tonight," warned Baker. "We're going to have to step it up another level."
