YELLOWJACKETS FLY PAST BULLDOGS; WILL HOST STOWE IN SEMIFINALS
By ANTHONY LABOR JR.
HIGHGATE – On the shot chart alone, one would think the Milton boys hockey team had a comfortable lead after the first period of Wednesday’s Div. II quarterfinal game against Burr and Burton. The Yellowjackets outshot the Bulldogs 8-1 in the period, but were only holding on to a 2-1 lead.
The second period was a much different story. Despite the No. 11 Bulldogs outshooting the third-seeded Yellowjackets 14-9 in the middle frame, it was Milton who put three in the back of the net which gave it all the breathing room it needed to come away with a 6-3 victory.
“With the short bench that Burr and Burton had, our guys just forechecked hard and the forecheck was pretty much flawless,” said Milton coach Bryant Perry. “We got a lot of takeaways on the forecheck which led to success on the other end either with a goal or leading to a penalty.”
Despite the Yellowjackets getting a lot of pressure on Burr and Burton goalie Michael Hornby (23 saves), they couldn’t break open the scoring until late in the first. Cooper Goodrich (one goal, two assists) took a slapshot from the blue line which was saved, but the rebound went straight to a wide-open Riley Zeno in the slot who put away his shot for the 1-0 lead.
Less than two minutes later, it was Goodrich’s turn to get in the goal column. He intercepted a clearing attempt at the blue line and skated the puck deep and threw the puck at the net from a tough angle. The shot seemed to surprise Hornby as the puck went off the goalie’s pads and trickled in off the post on the short side to make it a 2-0 game.
Max Brownlee answered for the Bulldogs less than a minute later as he took a pass from Aidan McMorrow in the slot and fired a wrist shot under Milton goalie Teddy Munson’s blocker. It was the only shot the Bulldogs had in the period.
The second period was much different for Munson (18 saves) in net for the Yellowjackets. After seeing only the one shot in the first period, he saw 14 in the second.
“As a goalie it’s tough to get in a rhythm when you aren’t seeing many pucks, so the more you see the more you are going to be in a rhythm like he was in the second,” said Perry on his goaltender. “He was ready to go and focused going into the second period.”
Owen Severy started the scoring early in the period. Goodrich skated hard into the Bulldogs’ zone and sent a cross-crease pass over to Severy who put the one-timer into the back of the net to make it 3-1.
Zorion Seaman extended the lead to 4-1 less than three minutes later on the power play on a wrist shot from the slot. The Bulldogs responded quickly again when Emmett Edwards redirected a shot from Jack McCoy from the slot to make it 4-2.
It looked like that would be the score going into the third, but Braden Matthieu made an excellent hustle play at the end of the second skating the length of the ice and finding the back of the net with four seconds remaining to give Milton the three-goal lead back along with all the momentum. Tyler Larocque was credited with the assist.
Both teams scored one goal in the third period with Zeno scoring midway through the period on assists from Caleb Barnier and Cam Fougere. A couple of minutes later, Brownlee added his second goal of the game to make it 6-3, but the Milton defense stood tall the rest of the way.
It was a big win in front of an impressive Milton crowd who made the trip to Highgate to energize the team.
“With us kind of being the hot ticket in town you might say, the support has been great for our team,” said Perry. “There was a bunch of family and friends and other fans and they were great tonight. And Saturday is going to be crazy.”
With the win, the Yellowjackets advance to the Div. II semifinals where they will host No. 7 Stowe, as they try to get back to the championship game just two years after falling in overtime of the 2020 finals. Stowe upset No. 2 U-32 5-4 on Wednesday.
Milton and Stowe faced off against each other once in the regular season which ended in a 2-2 tie on Jan. 15.
“We ran into a hot goalie the last time we played them,” said Perry. “They run a trap and we will have to go in with a similar mindset as tonight. We can’t miss, have to keep the mistakes to a minimum and stay out of the penalty box and don’t give them any time or space.”
