RallyNorth.net

Methuen Rangers Boys Ice Hockey '17-'18

Sun, Jan 14, 2018 03:00 PM @ Methuen
Team 1 2 3 Final
Shawsheen 0 0 2 2
Methuen 2 1 1 4

Blackwell nets 4 as Rangers top Shawsheen

  • Currently 0.0 with 0 votes.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Sunday, January, 14 By Marisa Ingemi
Staff writer

METHUEN — Slowly, Methuen is starting to find itself on the ice.
Four goals from senior captain Brett Blackwell powered the Rangers to a 4-2 victory against Shawsheen on Sunday afternoon. 
“He had a career game for us today,” said Rangers coach Bill Blackwell, also Brett’s father. “He was really in the right place at the right time. It was good to see.”
It’s the second win in a row for the Rangers (5-4-1). The loss for the Rams (5-4) snapped a two game streak of scoring five goals in a game, a credit to the Ranger defense.
Shawsheen was making the big step up from the Commonwealth Conference to battle an MVC foe.
“We’ve been Jekyll and Hyde this season,” said Blackwell. “We’ve had a couple of good games, and a couple bad games, so we don’t know which team is coming out. In the first few periods it looked like we were playing and it was going good, but in the third we couldn’t really get it done.”
Blackwell started the scoring on his first goal of the afternoon with seven minutes to go in the first. He took a pass from Aidan Hollingsworth and buried it to make it 1-0. 
Blackwell broke free on a penalty kill to double the lead on a shorthanded goal, the captain’s sixth tally of the year. He found the net again at the end of the second period on a pass from Pat Cooper for a 3-0 lead heading into the final frame.
Ron Page tallied at the start of the third for the first Rams goal of the day, before he scored again three minutes later to cut it to a one-goal game.
After the Rams kept pushing forward, Blackwell iced it with an empty net score for his fourth goal of the game and eighth of the year with 31 seconds left in the contest.
Junior Ed Mrozowski started in net, where he made 18 saves, and survived a few late defensive breakdowns.
“We need to work on team defense,” said Blackwell. “It’s funny too, because we came into the season saying we were going to score a bunch of goals, and we did early on. 
“We scored nine, then seven, then six. Lately, we’ve been down there but haven’t put it in. Consistency scoring goals, and then late team defense.”
Next up, it’s a week off to practice before a match against 6-3-1 North Andover Saturday. 
“We’re going to try to reinforce what we’ve always done, but add some things in,” said Blackwell. “We have to try to put in better forecheck, and add some stuff to our game.”
 
Methuen 4, Shawsheen 2
Shawsheen (5-4):    0 0 2 — 2
Methuen (5-4-1):    2 1 1 — 4
Goals: M — Brett Blackwell 4
Assists: M — Kyle Mackey, Aidan Hollingsworth, Pat Cooper
Saves: M — Ed Mrozowski

Game Statistics:

Goals: Brett Blackwell 4

Assists: Kyle Mackey, Aidan Hollingsworth, Pat Cooper

Saves: Ed Mrozowski 18

0 Story Comments