SALISBURY, Conn. -- Yes, you read that score correctly.
In what some would consider an upset, the high-flying Salisbury Crimson Knights were grounded, 4-2, by the gritty and determined Berkshire Bears in prep school action at the Rudd Rink here on Monday night.
The Andrew Will-coached Knights entered the game seemingly destined to take over the top of the New England Hockey Journal Prep School Coaches Poll after pasting Trinity-Pawling, 7-0, last Wednesday, while front-runner Dexter Southfield lost, 4-3, to Thayer over the weekend.
Salisbury entered Monday night's game on a 15-game unbeaten streak that dated back to the second game of the season and included a second consecutive Flood Marr title. The team was buzzing.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the top: an obstacle known as the Bears got in the way. The Bears are now 10-6-2 on the season, while the Knights fall to 14-2-1.
Here's what we saw at the game:
Why Berkshire won: Down 1-0 heading into the second period, the Bears were playing like they were overmatched, commiting turnovers and rushing their passes. And so it was reasonable to expect they were looking at a loss playing against a virtually unbeaten team in its own building.
But character and tenacity won out on this day, as the Dan Driscoll-coached Bears turned it around and did everything right in the second period that they weren't doing right in the first: passes were connecting, plays were clicking, hits were tactical and not retaliatory, disciplined was adhered to, shots were getting through and they were taking their time.
The Knights, on the other hand, saw their defensive game sag, lost a bit of control in the second and then emotions got the best of them in the third, on their way to just their second loss of the season, a stunner if there ever was one.
And don't discount the value of momentum here: The Bears are deservedly earning a reputation as giant killers after dumping an equally speedy and talented team in Avon Old Farms, which they handed their second loss of the season to on Saturday by a 2-0 score.
Best player on the ice: We've got a lot of candidates here: Salisbury's Lucas Mercuri scored both of his team's goals and was aggressively crashing the net from the opening faceoff; Jake MacDonald (Cumberland Center, Maine) looked good while scoring two, including an empty-netter, for Berkshire; and Aidan Thompson was moving the puck well and had two assists (the third member of that line, Briggs Gammill of nearby New Canaan, Conn., also had a speedy-good night). Cole Paredes (Norwalk, Conn.) had the other Berkshire goal.
But the final verdict comes down to Berkshire goalie Jed Baliotti (New Canaan, Conn.), who made save after save when counted on to, including a couple of stunners. The first could very well be the key play of the game as well, Baliotti making a huge stop on a Salisbury deflection in front with the home team up 1-0 with less than four minutes left in the first. If Salisbury scores on that play, they go up 2-0 heading into the first intermission in their own building.
The other big stop was an amazing extended-pad block late in the third on Jake Quillan with Salisbury applying heavy pressure with the goalie pulled on a 6-on-5, the score 4-2.
Key play: The key play could very well have been the game misconduct issued to Salisbury captain Jared Crespo, who, while fighting for the puck along the boards near the corner, took exception to being boarded by Berkshire's Hayden Riva (Lakeville, Conn.) and his resulting rough-housing got him tossed with major. The penalty came 34 seconds after the Bears had made it 3-1, so Salisbury needed a response to earn back the momentum, and this was not it.
Contrary to what you might think, the penalty temporarily fired up the Knights, as they killed off the five-minute major and were denying Berkshire for much of the 4-on-3.
But after the power play was over and both teams returned to full strength and their usual line combinations, Berkshire regained its composure and held fast with close checking, good man-to-man coverage and the generation of good chances. And being down a defenseman for the remaining 13:36 of regulation didn't help the Knights' chances.
Battle of the night: Aside from the aforementioned game-altering battle between Crespo and Riva, we had other interesting battles between MacDonald and Mercuri up front, as well as between Berkshire's Jack Bavis (West Roxbury, Mass.) and Salisbury's Cole Eichler, especially on faceoffs. Also worth noting was the battling each team put in while killing penalities, as more than one key shot-block and stick deflection got in the way of creating good chances. Those are the individual battles that add up to big things across an entire game.
Analysis: The stretch pass was definitely the weapon of choice by both teams, each using it effectively early on, when there were a lot of giveaways.
Salisbury seemed ready to use tactics to rattle Berkshire early on, attempting the hidden-player-at-the-blueline-near-the-bench trick that almost worked, plus having a forward drift high by the opposing blue line, looking for the long centering pass, which resulted in Mercuri's first goal, a nice Peter Forsberg-esque deke.
But the most effective stretch passes for the Bears came on odd-man rushes. Whenever they broke in on the Knights defense, the trailing player would go wide, seeking the pass to take away coverage of the defenseman, who was taking the puck carrier. This forced the goalie to move wide to get over for the inevitable shot. Berkshire used this effectively on their key third goal, which ended up being the winner, when Pratt Stetson (Sheffield, Mass.)Â went top shelf on Salisbury's Nick Haas after a nice long stretch pass from Thompson.
Paul Grant is an editor and a writer for HockeyJournal.com and Seamans Media. He previously oversaw hockey content at ESPN.com and Sporting News. You can connect with him at pgrant@hockeyjournal.com.
