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Central Catholic Raiders Boys Ice Hockey '10-'11

Sun, Mar 13, 2011 01:30 PM @ Central Catholic
Team 1 2 3 Final
Hingham 1 0 1 2
Central Catholic 0 1 0 1

Central Catholic loses game and tiebreaker, eliminated from Super 8

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Sunday, March, 13 By David Willis
Staff writer

NORTH ANDOVER — Yesterday went from bad to worse for Central Catholic hockey.

First, the Raiders fell to Hingham 2-1 in their Super 8 third round game at Merrimack College.

Then, three hours later down 495 at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Malden Catholic beat Weymouth 5-4.

That placed Central, Weymouth and Hingham in a three-way tie for the No. 2 spot all at 1-2. After a meeting within the Tsongas, officials announced that Weymouth had won the No. 2 tiebreaker of “goals quotient,” eliminating the Raiders from the tourney.

“It so disappointing,” said Raiders star Tommy Evangelista. “I was at the (Malden Catholic) game with a bunch of the guys. We saw them win and were really excited. Then, on the car ride home, we found out we weren’t in. We were very upset.”

Central needed Malden Catholic to win by two or more goals, because that would have allowed the Raiders to win the No. 1 tiebreaker of goals differential (goals for minus goals allowed).

Central had defeated Weymouth on Tuesday, but head-to-head did not factor in.

“We knew MC had to win by two,” said Raiders coach Mike Jankowski. “But then Weymouth pulled the goalie and I was wondering if we were wrong. It’s tough because it was right there for the taking.”

No local team has ever made it into the crossover round of the Super 8 in its 21-year history. Central, the only school to ever qualify for the tourney, has fallen in the first round all three seasons it has played (2007, 09, 11).

“It’s not easy,” said Jankowski. “But we had our chance. If we could have taken care of business against Hingham, we wouldn’t have had to worry about things like goal quotient.”

Hoping to clinch a spot in the semifinals with a win against Hingham, the Raiders fell behind 1-0 with 6:53 to go in the first on a goal by defenseman Steve Bellew.

But back came Central Catholic thanks to Evangelista, their most dynamic scorer.

“I got a nice pass from Nick (Leonard),” said Evangelista. “I came down, put a move on the kid and went top shelf.”

Heading towards the goal, Evangelista slid the puck between a defenseman’s skates, deked the goalie and roofed it over the goalie’s shoulder for his team-high 19th goal of the season, with 3:23 to go in the third.

“Nick made a really nice play in the neutral zone,” said Jankowski. “Tommy then made a great move and beat the goalie. It was a really nice goal.”

Raiders goalie Kyle Williams continued his breakout postseason with 21 saves. His best were a point-blank glove save, and another in which he blocked a shot to his left with his body, then slid to his right for a pad save on the rebound.

“Over and over again Kyle has come through for us,” said Jankowski. “He has a great approach and has done a wonderful job.”

But Hingham took the lead back with 6:51 to go in the game, scoring a breakaway goal.

Similar to the Malden Catholic loss in the first round, Central Catholic created plenty of traffic in front of the Hingham goalie in the final moments, but the Raiders were unable to finish off the scoring opportunities.

“We didn’t play a complete game,” said Jankowski. “We played well at times. We had some great spurts. But overall we did not have our best game.

“It still felt like we were in a good spot and could play another day. We had a great season, and every (Super 8) game was a one-goal game. We were so close. Hopefully we’ll be back next year.”

Many of the Raiders that remained at the Tsongas were visibly emotional after the news broke.

“It just stinks,” said Leonard. “But it was a special season. Going from where we started (1-3) to now, making close friends, it was great. It is unfortunate it’s over.”


What is goals quotient?

Central Catholic hockey was eliminated from the tournament because of a statistical tiebreaker known as “goal quotient.”

This is calculated by dividing the number of goals scored by the number of goals allowed. Thus, Central’s goal quotient is .857 (6 goals scored, 7 allowed) and Weymouth’s is .900 (9 scored, 10 allowed).

This came into play because the No. 1 tiebreaker, goals differential (goals scored minus goals allowed) was the same for both teams.

Head to head was not a factor, despite Central beating Weymouth.

Game Statistics:

Goals: FIRST PERIOD: MC Steve Bellew (Alex Pompeo) 6:53
SECOND PERIOD: CC Tommy Evangelista (Nick Leonard, Mike Kelleher) 3:23
THIRD PERIOD: James Gordon (Pompeo) 6:51

Saves: CC — Kyle Williams 21; H — Derek McInnis 20

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