Last week, the Littleton/Bromfield Tigers boys ice hockey team, composed of players from Littleton and Harvard, played the Hopedale Blue Raiders and the St. Peter-Marian Guardians. On Jan. 8, the Tigers tied the Blue Raiders 3-3 on the Groton School rink. On Jan. 12 Littleton/Bromfield played a makeup game—rescheduled due to bad weather on Dec. 30—against the Guardians on the Worcester rink, trouncing them 6-1.
Hopedale
Blue Raiders player Brady Butler scored the first goal of the Hopedale game barely a minute in, with an assist from Hunter Dunn. Littleton/Bromfield’s first was scored a minute later by Bromfield sophomore Maddox Lizotte, assisted by Bromfield senior captain Ben Hays. Seconds later, Bromfield senior Henry Hays scored a quick followup goal for the Tigers with an assist from Littleton junior Timothy Kelleher. “We had an offensive zone draw in the right circle, and Timmy won the faceoff right back to me. I stepped up and took a shot that went over the goalie’s shoulder,” Hays explained. The period ended in the Tigers’ favor, 2-1.
Seconds into the second period, Littleton’s senior captain Nick Brown scored a quick goal with an assist from his teammates Henry Hays and Lizotte. Hopedale’s Aidan Wenckus scored a retaliation goal assisted by Eric Landry four minutes later. The last goal of the game was a Blue Raiders goal by PJ Gray, assisted by Michael Govoni. Littleton’s senior goalie Ben Canfield made 46 saves, while Hopedale’s goalie John Tamaso made 26 saves in a hard-fought 3-3 tie.
St. Peter-Marian
The Tigers’ win against St. Peter-Marian, was decisive. The Guardians scored their first and only goal with six minutes left in the first period. The goal was scored by Nick Tomczak and assisted by Michael Clute. Four minutes later, Brown, assisted by Bromfield sophomore Kyle Tracey, scored Littleton/Bromfield’s first goal. The first period ended in a tie, 1-1.
In the second period, the Tigers shut out St. Peter-Marian and added four more goals to their total. Kelleher scored the first one 30 seconds in, assisted by Lizotte. The next goal was scored with six minutes left in the period by Lizotte, assisted by Brown. Seconds later, Bromfield junior Jonathan Corrieri scored a followup goal, assisted by Lizotte. The final goal of the period was scored with two minutes left by Bromfield sophomore Ryan McNulty, assisted by Littleton freshman Dylan Lokken and Lizotte. By the end of the second period, Littleton/Bromfield was in the lead, 5-1.
The single goal of the third period was scored by McNulty, assisted by Tracey, with five minutes to go.
Canfield made 22 saves and St. Peter-Marian’s goalie, Chris Palermo, made 34. Littleton sophomore goalie Aiden Leduc played for about five minutes and made five saves.
As of Jan. 13, Littleton/Bromfield had a record of 4-2-1 (2-1-0 league) and was second in the Coughlin Conference, while Hopedale had a record of 4-3-2 (1-1-1 league) and was fourth in the Russell Conference. St. Peter-Marian currently has a record of 1-4-2 and is fourth among independent, nonconference teams.
Next up, the Tigers will face off against Fitchburg High School at the Wallace Civic Center in Fitchburg at 8:10 p.m on Jan. 18. First-place Fitchburg is the team to beat in the Coughlin Conference if the Tigers hope to advance to first place.
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