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Astros come out flat, fall to Hanover

Tuesday, January, 08 By Peter A. Martin
Staff writer

Pinkerton Academy lost two crucial league points last night against Hanover in a game full of missed opportunities and a lack of consistent effort.

"That's the main disappointment tonight," said Pinkerton head coach Casey Kesselring after the Astros fell 5-1. "This is a team we will be battling with for position at the end of the season and we laid an egg at home. It was unacceptable."

The trouble started early for Pinkerton when, just three minutes into the game, Hanover senior forward Alex Sliwinski scored a power-play goal to give the Marauders the lead. Hanover dominated the rest of the period, netting one more goal, a tally from junior forward Mike Tecca, but the score could have been much higher if not for the effort of Pinkerton freshman goaltender Kevin Kent.

"We could have been down four goals at the end of the first, but Kevin made some really nice saves for us to keep us in the game at that point," said Kesselring.

Sliwinski struck again for Hanover in the second period with a shot through a crowd in front of the net that beat Kent, putting the Marauders up 3-0.

Pinkerton's lone goal came late in the second period when senior defenseman Mitch Granoff found junior forward Jason Carace to start an odd man rush. Carace beat a defenseman with a nifty spin move before finding junior forward Nick Currier in the slot for a goal that Hanover freshman netminder Brendan Leeming never had a chance at.

The third period was all Hanover after team captain Pat Doherty won the opening face-off, skated into the offensive zone and beat Kent with a move to his forehand just eight seconds into the period. It was the second power-play goal in as many opportunities for the Marauders.

The icing on the cake for Hanover came with five minutes left to play when junior forward Ben Rimmer picked up a deflected shot in the slot and beat Kent over his right shoulder to account for the final score.

"We killed six power plays which is nice to see, not to mention going two for three on our own power play," said Hanover coach Dick Dodds. "I think that was the difference in a game that was much closer than the final score indicated."