BOSTON — The Revere/Malden boys hockey team got off to the start it wanted against Ashland in the opening round of the East Boston Deep Freeze Tournament on Tuesday evening, but some sloppy play and a late Ashland goal with less than 30 seconds left in the game handed the Patriots a 2-1 loss at Lt. Porrazzo Memorial Rink.
“We had a great start to this game, but once things fell apart we just couldn’t get it back,” said Revere coach Joe Ciccarello. “We don’t play great when things go wrong for us, and we need to become more mentally tough if we want to win these big games against good teams.”
The lone Revere goal was scored by Marc Giordano on an impressive play. Patriots goalie Brendan Sweeney tallied 19 saves in the loss.
Ashland’s Jackson Hornung scored both goals for the Clockers.
The Patriots came out on the right foot to open the game. They were playing both fast and physical, and it paid off within the first two minutes of the game. When a loose puck bounced out to center ice and an Ashland player went to corral it, Giordano swept in and knocked the puck off the boards as a pass to himself and broke into the offensive zone all alone. As he skated through the right circle, he lifted a quick wrist shot over Ashland goalie Michael Lowd’s shoulder and just under the crossbar to give the Patriots an early 1-0 edge, their only lead of the game.
“We were doing everything we needed to early on, but we just couldn’t sustain it,” Ciccarello said.
Unfortunately for Revere, the momentum didn’t last long. Just four minutes after Giordano’s goal, Hornung took advantage of an unsuccessful clearing attempt by Revere and scooped up a loose puck in the offensive zone. From there, he had a clear shot at the net and took it, sniping a shot right under the crossbar himself to tie the score.
Both teams had a host of scoring chances throughout the rest of the game, but none came to fruition. Ashland clanged two shots off the post in the second period, and Revere was around the net so much that the Patiots knocked it off its moorings several times. But the goaltenders both stood tall and the bounces didn’t go either teams way, and it was beginning to look like overtime was inevitable.
But then, after Revere iced the puck as time was expiring, Ashland got a faceoff in the offensive zone. The Clockers won the faceoff and the puck bounced right to Hornung, who skated to the net and flipped a shot past Sweeney for the game-winning goal with 21.8 seconds left on the clock.
Despite the tough loss, Ciccarello knows his guys are ready to get back on track this evening in the tournament’s consolation game.
“Around here, we try to never get too high after a win or too low after a loss,” said Ciccarello. “So we have an opportunity to get right back on the ice and get back on track and our guys need to find a way to make that happen.”
The Patriots will face off against O’Bryant in the consolation game at 4 p.m. back at Porrazzo Rink.
