BROOKLINE, Mass. — After Wednesday night’s season-opening loss to Milton, St. Mark’s was in need of a big performance at Dexter Southfield.
The Lions got it and took down Dexter, 4-1, to snag their first win of the season. Dexter is still looking for its first win after tying Cushing in the season-opener, 2-2.
St. Mark’s opened the scoring when junior Andrew Gibbons (Wakefield, R.I.) rifled home a pass from sophomore Drew Carr (Medway, Mass.) past Dexter goalie Max Gatti (Winchester, Mass.) late in the first period.
Early in the second period, Austin Borggaard (Charlton, Mass.) finished off a 2-on-1 with Damon Myers (Worcester, Mass.) to extend the lead to 2-0. Then, with 8:35 to play, Myers buried a goal off a 3-on-1 to make it 3-0 St. Mark’s.
Less than two minutes into the third period, Dexter tried running what looked to be a set faceoff play in its own zone. When it didn’t work, St. Mark’s forward Evan Nee (Arlington, Mass.) was left wide open in front of the net with the puck and he scored to make it 4-0.
Dexter’s Nate Porter (Hingham, Mass.) potted his team’s lone goal with 3:49 to play.
Let’s dive into the big takeaways from Friday night’s heavyweight tilt.
1. Lions got the scoring they needed
St. Mark's head coach Carl Corazzini (Framingham, Mass.) mentioned heading into this season that his team’s strength would be its offense. It certainly was on Friday, as the Lions had four different goal-scorers and they finished their chances despite not having Richard Gallant (Concord, Mass.) for a second-straight game. Two of their goals came off the rush, while two came from offensive zone time.
Gibbons continued to score, as the junior potted his third goal in two games Friday night.
St. Mark’s will need this to continue if it wants to be in Elite 8 contention.
By contrast, Dexter has the opposite makeup — its strengths are on defense with Harvard commit and senior captain Sean Keohane (Milton, Mass.), Yale commit Jonathan Lanza (Westwood, Mass.), Holy Cross commit Liam O’Keeffe (Boston, Mass.) and senior captain Mick Frechette (Weston, Mass.).
2. Dexter struggled to generate offense
Dexter head coach Dan Donato (Dedham, Mass.) is well aware that his team doesn’t have a big-name, high-volume point producer (at least just yet).
While Porter looks like he’s got that potential, Dexter’s shortcomings on offense were obvious Friday night. Its first line of Connor Sutherland (West Roxbury, Mass.), Cullen Emery (Reading, Mass.) and Ben Morgan (Chelmsford, Mass.) was its best. The trio had sustained attacking zone time but often struggled to get to interior ice.
Along with Porter, Emery is another candidate to lead the charge offensively. He was always around the puck Friday and drove the play well. The expectations are high for Emery but if he can deliver on the scoresheet, it’ll make life a bit easier for Dexter.
3. Jeevan Anand was outstanding in net for St. Mark’s
Corazzini opted for senior Jeevan Anand in net for Friday’s game, and the Shrewsbury, Mass., native delivered in a big way. He was square to shooters and didn’t give up huge rebounds, especially on shots from the outside.
Anand had two saves that really stood out. The first came late in the second period when Dexter forward Brayden Naumann (West Roxbury, Mass.) penetrated the St. Mark’s defense and got a point-blank chance on Anand, but was stopped. The second came in the third when Keohane had a wide-open shot from the point and went high glove side, but was denied by Anand.
Corazzini labeled his net as a question mark prior to the season. Anand looked like the real deal Friday night.
4. St. Mark’s defense had big improvements from Wednesday
It wasn’t anything flashy, but St. Mark’s defense got the job done Friday night. They kept a fair amount of Dexter shots to the perimeter and defended the front of the net well, which helped Anand's performance.
On breakouts, St. Mark’s was quick to move the puck up and push the pace the other way, which played into a strength of theirs — offense off the rush. The wings often stretched into the neutral zone, drawing Dexter’s defenders back.
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Senior blueliner Justin Pare brought the puck out a lot and was St. Mark’s best puck-mover off the back end. He was terrific while defending his own end as well.
5. Terrific night from St. Mark’s Jonathan Balzarini
Balzarini (Milford, Mass.) logged three assists Friday night, but one stood out from all the others.
While Dexter set up in the offensive zone, Balzarini put himself in a good position and intercepted a pass. He sent his team the other way, sifted a pass up to Myers, who passed it to Borggaard and he scored. It may have only been a secondary assist, but Balzarini’s hockey sense was the only reason that goal happened and it was a big one, putting St. Mark’s up, 2-0.
His other big play was using his foot to block a Keohane one-timer with just over two minutes to play in the game. As is well known, Keohane has a missile and Balzarini knows firsthand what that’s like now. Balzarini went down immediately and needed some help getting up. Of course, the Dexter student section had some fun with it, but Balzarini got the last laugh as he got stick taps from his teammates and the Lions went on to win.
6. Dexter played extremely physical
While Dexter’s top four on defense are really good, they’re also really big. Lanza is the shortest at 5-foot-11 and all four weigh at least 185 pounds. Even Carson Nickulas (Barnstable, Mass.), the team’s fifth defenseman, is 6-foot-1.
Frechette, a senior captain, was easily the most physical player on the ice, constantly aiming for the body instead of the puck. He had a couple of old-school, open-ice hits that you don’t often see anymore.
That physicality especially showed itself with under two minutes to play when Dexter pulled Gatti and after a whistle, Dexter’s players took aim at St. Mark’s forward Jimmy Lyver (Grafton, Mass.), who had been a target all game. The scrum moved to in front of the Dexter student section and escalated to the point where Lyver’s helmet came off. St. Mark’s came out of it with a power play and the game ended shortly after.
Even though that physicality didn’t result in a win, they seem to be developing a blue-collar mentality, as New England Hockey Journal's Jeff Cox wrote after Wednesday’s tie with Cushing.
