Wellesley, MA – Once again through the magic of our friends at LiveBarn we were able to take in a marquee matchup of two D1 teams with at least 5 wins on the season: the undefeated 7-0 Wellesley Raiders and the 5-2 Framingham Flyers. Both teams have had their share of early season success and we had this particular game in Wellesley at the sleek new Boston Sports Institute pegged as one of our top matchups of the week.
In the first period, it started out as a Framingham shooting gallery as they swarmed the Raiders with an aggressive forecheck and good quickness in the attacking zone. They were able to hem them in for the first few minutes and create a few good looks in transition through turnovers before penalties began to take over the period. Most of the remainder of the frame would be spent on special teams as the Raiders sat for the first call and the Flyers were called for the next three. Framingham was able to kill off the first two, but the Raiders cashed in on the third. With just over three minutes remaining in the period, senior captain Sean Maxwell found junior defenseman Kyle Parker at the point and he stepped around a defender putting a shot on net through traffic that slipped through the Flyers’ goalie: 1-0 Raiders. That would be our score after 15 minutes of action.
In the middle frame, it was fairly even split, both in terms of chances and in terms of penalties called. Both teams saw through the ebb and flow and each side had sparkling chances, but for the first 10 minutes, there wasn’t much to show for it on the scoreboard. In that 10th minute, the Flyers had just been denied a great look at point blank range by senior Raiders goalie Reagan O’Neil which sprung transition in the other direction. Junior forward Nils Tellander sprinted to the open left wing and carried the puck over the blue line as his linemate, senior Aiden Turner sprinted to the net. Tellander fed him the puck and Turner slipped the puck under the pads to make it 2-0 Wellesley. The remainder of the period would be a territorial battle but we would go to the room with the score 2-0. Could Framingham mount a third period comeback? Time would tell…
In the final frame, things certainly started off strong for the Flyers and gave them the boost that they needed. Four minutes into the period junior forward Jeremy Auren danced around a check and fed the puck north as he crossed the blue line to fellow junior forward Brendan Peck who made a beautiful play by faking as if he was ready to pass across the crease and snapping it home to cut the lead in half at 2-1. The momentum was fully on the Flyers side and they looked to tie it up with a spring in their step, but O’Neil slammed the door shut on a breakaway by Auren which changed the complexion of this one. The Raiders would answer soon after. A minute and a half later it was another power play that paid dividends as Parker dished the puck to sophomore sniper Brody Sharpe who creeped in to the dot and fired one home to make it 3-1 Wellesley. From that point on it was a lot of back and forth action with both teams looking to deliver the knockout blow. Both teams had turnovers, odd-man rushes, but there were some big time saves at both ends. Time began to dwindle and the Flyers pulled their goalie at the 1:20 mark and took an ensuing timeout with just over a minute left on the clock. That whiteboard session paid off immediately as junior forward Noah Albright passed the puck up top to sophomore defender Jack Kurzman who dished it to junior blue liner Dominic Connerney who stepped into one from the point and cut the lead to 3-2 with 52 seconds remaining. Off the ensuing faceoff, Framingham set up once again in their offensive zone and buzzed around with the extra skater, but they were unable to tie it up at the last minute: Wellesley survives and moves to 8-0 with the 3-2 victory.
Three Stars:
- F Brody Sharpe, Wellesley
- G Reagan O’Neil, Wellesley
- D Kyle Parker, Wellesley
